Virat Kohli vs Viv Richards: An ODI comparison

There is an indelible romance associated with the performances which uphold the excitement a cricket contest promises to provide, and more often than not, authors of such performances are some of the game’s finest exponents.

If one has to truly appreciate the might of a great cricketer, one must look for what is/was written about him in his heydays.

The generation brought up in the 1990s was fortunate to have seen the genius of players like Wasim Akram, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Adam Gilchrist, Jacques Kallis, Glenn Mcgrath, Anil Kumble and many others unfold through its television sets.

These names would precede all others if anybody from this generation is asked to list down the greatest players of the game.

Similarly, for the generation brought up in the 2000s/10s has seen the likes of Virat Kohli, Kumar Sangakkara, AB De Villiers, and Dale Steyn stamp their class which makes them appear head and shoulders above their peers, and to the short-sighted enthusiast, even above their predecessors.

To many, Vivian Richards remains the godfather of the ODI format. Dean Jones, himself an exceptional ODI player, regarded Viv Richards as the best One Day batsman ever. What’s amazing about Viv’s exploits in ODIs was that it was just an extension of his natural game, which had come to the fore in Tests many times before his ODI career took off.

In Richards’ batting one saw everything that batsmen employ in their game today; Backing away and hitting over covers, moving multiple stumps outside off-stump and hitting towards the leg side etc.

Richards was the first batsman to reach 1000, 3000, 4000, 5000 and 6000 ODI runs, and until Virat Kohli rewrote the ODI record books, Richards was the fastest to these landmarks as well.

Readers on this site would be able to recall former cricketers comparing Virat Kohli’s performances in Australia, with Viv Richards’ exploits there in 1979. The comparison is not without a reason, Richards considers Kohli most alike when it comes to aggression and temperament.

Richards: the trendsetter, Kohli: The Torch Bearer. It is only apt that we look at their respective ODI careers and try to find out who has had a bigger impact on the game. So, here we go!

Vivian Richards was a fearsome batsman in his prime

OVERALL NUMBERS

Viv Richards ended his ODI career with 6721 runs in his kitty, scored at a strike rate of 90 and an average of 47. Kohli’s, meanwhile, is an ongoing career in which he has scored 7212 runs, with a strike rate of 89 and an average of 51.

Kohli looks to have an edge over Richards over almost all parameters, but a deeper look into the numbers tells a different story altogether. Putting these records into the context of the times in which these were collected puts Viv Richards on a higher pedestal than Kohli.

Richards’s batting average factor is 1.60, implying that his average was 60% higher than the overall batting average of top and middle order batsmen during his playing days (June 1975-May 1991). Kohli’s average factor, helped by his insane century scoring frequency, is 1.56.

While average factors (% better than the overall average) is almost the same for both players, it is the strike rate that puts Viv in a class of his own. Kohli’s strike rate factor is 1.11, whereas Richards’ is 1.37.

In fact, for the 33 players who scored more than 2000 ODI runs during Richards’ career span, only Kapil Dev (99.18) had a strike rate greater than his and only 3 other batsmen had a strike rate of more than 80; Saleem Malik, Zaheer Abbas and Aravinda De Silva.

Multiplying the average and the strike rate factor shows that Richards was more than twice as good as the average batsman, whereas Kohli’s factor is 1.73. Not only was Richards scoring heavily, but was scoring it at a rate which was unheard of during the ‘80s.

Player Name	Matches	Innings	Not Outs	Runs	Average	100	50	S/R
Viv Richards	181	167	24	6721	47.00	11	45	90.51
Virat Kohli	171	163	23	7212	51.51	25	36	89.97

Table 1: Overall Numbers Comparison

Player Name	Career Span	Player Batting Average	Player Strike Rate	Overall Average	Overall Strike Rate	Average Factor	S/R Factor	Overall Factor
Viv Richards	1975-1991	47.00	90.51	29.38	65.96	1.60	1.37	2.20
Virat Kohli	2008-2016	51.51	89.97	32.95	81.07	1.56	1.11	1.73

Next, let’s take a look at the Average and Striker Rate factor comparisons

Virat Kohli’s numbers speak for themselves

Table 2: Average and Strike Rate Factor

Looking at player value by taking the peak form years into account also puts Richards ahead of Kohli. Richards averaged a phenomenal 59.24 from Dec 1975-Mar 1986, which gives him an unbelievable average factor of 2.13.

Kohli, on the other hand, has averaged 57.15 from Sep 2011 onwards, giving him an average factor of 1.70. On strike rate too Richards pips Kohli with a strike rate factor of 1.43 compared to Kohli’s factor of 1.14.

Richards, it emerges, had an overall value factor of 3.05, implying that he was nearly thrice as good as the average top and middle order batsman during his peak. Kohli’s value factor at 1.92 is also nothing short of incredible given the rate at which runs are scored in the modern era, but Richards number appears truly phenomenal.

Richards’ supremacy is illustrated best through two innings; a 39 ball 82 vs England at POS (1985) and a 39 ball 80 vs Pakistan at Gujranwala (1985). These were two of the only four 50 plus scores accumulated at a strike rate of more than 200 throughout the 1980s. That is a serious achievement to lay claim to.

Player Name	Peak Period	Average	Strike Rate	Overall Average	Overall Strike Rate	Average Factor	S/R Factor	Overall Factor
Viv Richards	Dec 1975-Mar 1986	59.24	91.35	27.78	63.86	2.13	1.43	3.05
Virat Kohli	Sep 2011-Oct 2016	57.15	94.68	33.71	81.07	1.70	1.14	1.93

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Table 3: Average and Strike Rate Factor (Peak Period)

Richards once said in an interview that the world wouldn’t see the best of him until something (some title) is on the line. His claim is amply reflected through his performance in tournament finals and semi-finals where he averages an impressive 53.42.

Kohli averages a paltry 24.4 in such matches, which is surprising for a player of his mettle. Richard’s average in such matches is only bettered by Gary Kirsten, Michael Bevan and Javed Miandad.

Player Name	Matches	Innings	Not Outs	Runs	Average	100	50
Viv Richards	24	22	3	1015	53.42	1	11
Virat Kohli	12	12	2	244	24.40	0	1

Let’s review how their performances match up in Tournament Semi-Finals and Finals on the next page!

Vivian Richards was a finisher, but so is Virat Kohli

Table 4: Performance in tournament Semi Finals and Finals

His finals record notwithstanding, Kohli has nevertheless emerged as an extraordinary match-winner while chasing. His record while chasing is phenomenal when seen in the all-time context. Kohli averages a mind-boggling 83.97, as compared to Richards’ formidable 57.97.

Kohli has also scored 13 centuries in successful chases, next only to Sachin Tendulkar’s 14. His average is bettered only by two of the most brilliant finishers in this format, MS Dhoni (105.77), and Michael Bevan (86.25).

Player Name	Matches	Innings	Not Outs	Runs	Average	100	50
Viv Richards	75	58	20	2203	57.97	3	15
Virat Kohli	60	57	18	3275	83.97	13	14

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Table 5: Record in successful Run Chases

Part of the explanation for Kohli’s astronomical average can be the fact that India’s average successfully chased score during Kohli’s career span (Aug 2008-Oct 2016) has been 227, compared with the West Indies’ average chase of 185 during Richards’ career span (Jun 1975-May 1991), thus giving Kohli more opportunities to score big runs.

Also, Richards’ career saw him bat after the legendary opening pair of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes had given the West Indies a solid start, as is evident in an average opening partnership of 54.87, compared with 50.64 for India during Kohli’s career span.

Please also note that these are the only possible explanations for the yawning gap between the two batsmen’s averages, this is not meant to take anything away from Kohli’s incredible temperament during run chases.

Let’s proceed to take a look at how the two fared in Partnerships!

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Virat Kohli edges out Viv as the better batting partner

PARTNERSHIP ANALYSIS

Building partnerships is the hallmark of a match-winning batsman in any format of the game, even more so in the 50 over format where run scoring cannot be allowed to dry up at any point. Kohli and Viv Richards compare very favourably when in comes to building partnerships in ODIs.

Richards was involved in 303 partnerships throughout his ODI career, Virat Kohli has been involved in 317 in his career so far.

Richards and Kohli are involved in almost the same number of partnerships per match at 1.81 and 1.94 respectively. But a wicket wise breakdown reveals an interesting insight. Virat Kohli is involved, on an average, in 2 partnerships when coming in at the fall of the 1^st wicket; which he has done 112 times so far.

Viv Richards, on the other hand, is involved in 1.84 partnerships coming in at his most frequent position, no.4. Kohli has been involved in meatier partnerships through his career, as is evident from an average 46.2 runs per partnership compared to 40.4 for Viv Richards.

The wickets that Kohli has most frequently been involved in partnerships for also amount to more number of runs than they did with Richards. (56.33 and 45.79 for the 3^rd and 2^nd wicket respectively for Kohli vs 40.90 and 44.30 for the 3^rd and 2^nd wicket respectively for Viv Richards).

Nonetheless, being true to his dominating style of play, Richards scored 54.9% (6721/12241) of the runs he added in partnerships during his career. Kohli, meanwhile, has been more forthcoming to his batting partners by scoring 49.2% (7212/14644) of the total partnership runs by himself.

The general tendency to score quickly, and Kohli’s propensity to keep the scoreboard ticking along has meant that he has been slightly ahead of Viv when it comes to building partnerships.

Wicket	Innings_Viv	Innings_Kohli	Partnerships_Viv	Partnerships_Kohli	Average Partnerships_Viv	Average Partnerships_Kohli	Runs_Viv	Runs_Kohli	Average_Viv	Average_Kohli
1	1	6	1	13	1.00	2.17	31	268	31	20.61
2	52	112	103	228	1.98	2.04	4563	10442	44.30	45.79
3	79	37	145	63	1.84	1.70	5930	3549	40.90	56.33
4	29	3	47	5	1.62	1.67	1593	262	33.89	52.40
5	5	1	6	2	1.20	2	113	42	18.83	21
6		4		6		1.50		81		13.50
7
8	1		1		1		11		11.00
9
Total	167	163	303	317	1.81	1.94	12241	14468	40.4	46.2

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Table 6: Partnerships Summary

The comparison of Richards’ and Kohli’s numbers is not a competition for one-upmanship. Richards has been the greatest exponent of the ODI format, whereas Kohli has revelled in it quite unlike anybody in recent times.

A comparison of players across different eras also throws up interesting insights into how the game has changed over the years; from easy paced 60 (and then 50) over matches, to the chock a block modern day ODI contest. Viv was the standout in a crowd of ordinaries, the first and the foremost torch bearer for the format.

Virat has carried that torch and run quite a distance with it. Where does he end up, only time will tell!