What Are Bowling and Batting Averages in Cricket?

Bowling and batting averages are a way to track a player’s overall performance across a series of games, a season, or even an entire career. Bowling averages are better when they are low while batting averages are better when they are high.

The bowling average is the number of runs scored against a bowler divided by the number of wickets they took.

The batting average is the number of runs the batter scored divided by the number of times they were out.

Note that this is not necessarily the same as the number of innings they played as they may have been not out every time. For example, somebody scoring 400 runs in 10 innings who finished not out twice would have a bowling average of 50 (400/8). (If a batter hasn’t been out at all, their average is usually just the number of runs they’ve scored, the same as if they’d been out once.) This can artificially boost the batting average of a tailender (somebody who bats at the end of the innings) as they will often be the “last batter standing”, though these players tend not to score many runs anyway.

Averages are more useful the more games they cover. After five first class games, Sachin Tendulkar had only been dismissed once, giving him an average of more than 1,000. While he was an all-time great, that was somewhat misleading!

Often a bowling average will only cover games in a particular format such as multi-innings games (eg Tests), one day games and T20. That’s because the tactics and expectations are very different for players in different formats.

One theory has it that a player whose batting average is higher than their bowling average can be classed a true “all-rounder”.

Other Bowling And Batting Averages

The standard bowling and batting averages are arguably most relevant for Tests and other List A games. There are also three main alternative averages:

Strike rate for a batter is how many runs they scored dived by how many balls they faced, multiplied by one hundred. (In other words, how many runs they scored per hundred balls.) This is particularly relevant for T20 where scoring quickly can be more important than avoiding getting out.

Economy rate for a bowler is how many runs were score against them divided by the number of overs they delivered. It’s arguably more important in a one-day game where minimizing the number of runs the opponents score can be more important than getting the whole team out.

Strike rate for a bowler is how many balls they delivered divided by the number of wickets they took. In other words, how many balls it took to get each wicket. That can be particularly important in multi-day games where the bowlers have to get the opposing team out before the end of the game to avoid a draw.