India v West Indies: the fastest-scoring series in India
Three games at 11.36 runs an over: no bilateral T20I series in India since 2016 has scored faster. Who scored the runs, who kept them down, and why off-spin held up best.
11.36 runs an over. A batter's series.
The fastest of its kind
No bilateral T20I series in India since 2016 scored faster over its first three games.
Six batters above 10 an over
Shreyas Iyer led the way at 13.6 runs an over.
Off-spin held up best
Roston Chase went for 8.5 an over, the cheapest of anyone who bowled six overs or more.
The fastest-scoring series of its kind in India
After three games, India and West Indies have made 1,276 runs between them at 11.36 an over: 69 sixes, 121 fours, and four totals over 200 in six innings. We compared it with every bilateral T20I series played in India since 2016, taking the first three games of each. There are 17 of them, and none scored this quickly.
See all 17 series
| Series | Started | Runs an over |
|---|---|---|
| India v New Zealand | Jan 2026 | 10.91 |
| India v Australia | Nov 2023 | 10.76 |
| India v West Indies | Dec 2019 | 10.00 |
| India v Bangladesh | Oct 2024 | 9.64 |
| India v South Africa | Sep 2022 | 9.37 |
| India v Sri Lanka | Jan 2023 | 9.28 |
| India v South Africa | Jun 2022 | 8.83 |
| India v Sri Lanka | Feb 2022 | 8.76 |
| India v West Indies | Feb 2022 | 8.70 |
| India v New Zealand | Nov 2021 | 8.16 |
| India v England | Jan 2025 | 8.13 |
| India v Bangladesh | Nov 2019 | 8.10 |
| India v England | Mar 2021 | 8.04 |
| India v South Africa | Dec 2025 | 8.01 |
| India v England | Jan 2017 | 7.91 |
| India v West Indies | Nov 2018 | 7.65 |
| India v New Zealand | Jan 2023 | 7.42 |
It is quick by any standard, not just India's. Across 54 series between two full-member sides anywhere since 2023, the fastest first three games went at 10.91 an over.
Six batters above the rest
Six batters stand clearly apart. Each made 96 runs or more, which only about one batter in ten manages in the first three games of a series, and every one of them scored at more than 10 runs an over.
| Batter | Runs | Balls | S/R | Runs an over |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sherfane Rutherford WI | 172 | 91 | 189 | 11.3 |
| Shai Hope WI | 159 | 87 | 183 | 11.0 |
| Shreyas Iyer IND | 143 | 63 | 227 | 13.6 |
| Ishan Kishan IND | 117 | 67 | 175 | 10.5 |
| Abhishek Sharma IND | 110 | 52 | 212 | 12.7 |
| Sanju Samson IND | 96 | 56 | 171 | 10.3 |
The bowlers who kept it down
Across the three games the bowlers went for 11.21 an over between them. These six, each with six overs or more, did best:
| Bowler and type | Overs | Runs | Wkts | Economy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roston Chase WIOff-spin | 11.4 | 99 | 6 | 8.49 |
| Gudakesh Motie WILeft-arm finger spin | 6.0 | 58 | 1 | 9.67 |
| Mayank Yadav INDRight-arm pace | 11.0 | 110 | 4 | 10.00 |
| Arshdeep Singh INDLeft-arm pace | 12.0 | 123 | 4 | 10.25 |
| Naman Dhir INDOff-spin | 9.0 | 95 | 5 | 10.56 |
| Kuldeep Yadav INDLeft-arm wrist spin | 8.0 | 86 | 3 | 10.75 |
Chase stands apart: more than a run an over cheaper than anyone else who bowled six overs, and the most wickets in the series. Two of the three cheapest are finger spinners.
Finger spin is the cheapest bowling in T20 cricket
Every type of bowling went for far more than usual in this series. Off-spin was the cheapest type here, and right-arm pace, which bowled 44% of the balls, the most expensive, as in T20 internationals generally. The exception was left-arm finger spin, usually the cheapest of all, which went for 11.60 an over.
No leg-spin was bowled in the series. Left-arm wrist spin is rare in T20 internationals, so its figure there rests on 126 overs.
In T20 internationals since 2023, finger spin is the cheapest bowling there is: left-arm finger spin goes at 6.47 an over and off-spin at 6.93, against 7.73 for right-arm pace. It is not only because spinners bowl the quieter middle overs. Within overs 7 to 16 the order is the same: 6.33 and 6.74 against 7.50.
Off-spin is the type batters most often struggle against
We looked at 713 batters with 300 balls or more in T20 cricket since 2023, and compared each one's runs above average against each type of bowling with every batter facing that type in the same overs. A weak spot is 0.05 runs a ball or more below average.
Off-spin comes out on top, a weak spot for about one batter in three. The gap to the other types is not large, but it points the same way as the economy figures: off-spin is cheap in T20 cricket generally, and more batters have a weak spot against it than against anything else.
What the three games show
- At 11.36 runs an over, this is the quickest-scoring of the 17 bilateral T20I series played in India since 2016.
- Six batters made 96 runs or more, each at better than 10 runs an over. Shreyas Iyer went quickest, at 13.6.
- Roston Chase's off-spin was the hardest bowling to score from, at 8.49 an over.
- Finger spin is the cheapest bowling in T20 internationals, and off-spin is the type batters most often have a weak spot against.
Three games is a small sample. The fourth is on 14 October.
- The series is the first three games: India won the first by 8 wickets, West Indies the second by 6 wickets, India the third by 14 runs. Runs an over counts every run, including extras, over legal balls bowled.
- The comparison is every bilateral T20I series in India since 2016 with at least three games, using the first three. Ball-by-ball data from cricsheet.org.
- A batter's runs an over is his strike rate turned into overs: runs per ball times six.
- Economy is runs conceded per over, counting wides and no-balls but not byes or leg byes, the same way for this series and for T20 internationals.
- Weak spots use runs above average, our own ball-by-ball measure of the runs a batter adds compared with the expected score, so a dismissal costs runs as well.