Complete noib question on finding players

[gazdadude]

What stats do you need to take into account when signing players and youth players

[cde]

Hi, signing youth playera look at their 2nd XI stats. They give a fair impression and you can compare them to real life players to get an idea of where they may get to. It isn't a fail safe and as in real life a promising young 2nd XI player can fail at county level just as a cracking county player can fail at international level.

One thing I found really useful when I first started playing and looking for players was to have a look at the teams who won each competition. See what their players have been averaging over the year, if it is a LO format how high the batsman's strike rate is. If it is working for them it will work for you!

Enjoy the game

[Chris_]

Aye, for me it's always been 2nd XI stats. There will always be some who out-perform what you expected from their stats and others who you think should become world class yet fall short, but on the whole it's a good indication.

For First Class batting, for instance, the really strong/reliable batsmen will typically have 2nd XI 3-Day batting averages in the 60s along with a high score in the 200s. Another key thing I like to look at is the percentage of innings in the 100s and 50s; again, the strongest batsmen will typically have over 40% of their innings being 50s or 100s. If they only have a combined total of 22% (as an example) it indicates they're much more likely to be out for low scores more frequently. As the game just shows totals rather than percentages for this I keep a spreadsheet of my players to show the numbers I want.

Aside from stats I also take batting preferences into consideration; As I play in England I mostly face seam bowlers on wickets that give advantages to them, so I tend not to be too keen on spin specialists (and I almost always coach them to a 'slight spin' instead). There are other aspects here I like to look for, but that's personal preference and many people will likely have different things they like to look for here, or simply not care at all and just play to whatever a specific player's strengths and weaknesses are.

In terms of looking for bowlers I've found that a 2nd XI 3-Day average of below 20 gives a reliable bowler. The really great bowlers might be around 15/16, but they don't come around too often. Averages of around 20-23 can still be decent, and then 25-30 and above I really notice a drop off. That said, an all-rounder with a bowling average of around 25 can still be useful if they have good batting stats along with it. I like a good strike rate too for first class bowlers, and I've found anything below 40 to be good with SRs in the low 40s are ok. Once they get to the high 40s and 50+ for SR there's usually a noticeable drop-off in their ability to take wickets.

For One Day and 20-Over games I like to look at a combination of batting average and strike rate for batsmen and with bowlers their economy gets more focus.

As cde said, a good thing to do if you're not sure is to have a look at players who've done well in the different formats and make a note of what their 2nd XI stats look like. You should then start seeing patterns, or trends in terms of what they all have.

A final thing I'd add is player age. It's not so much an issue for the first season as their ability is set in the database but once you're in the 2nd season and onwards the older players will be declining each season. This can mean that an older player might have really good stats from their historic performances but they've declined to the point where they no longer play that well. I don't know exactly what age decline starts or the rate it happens as that's not been made public, but from previous versions I've noticed that performances typically drop off from around 32 in most cases. A great player might still be good at 34 but a good player can very quickly end up looking very average.

Edit: I forgot to add that while I look at 2nd XI stats for established players as well as youth players (as it makes a good comparison), if they've played a reasonable number of senior games I'll check their full senior stats to see if they're in line with what I'd expect from the 2nd XI stats or if there seems to be a massive difference that suggests they simply haven't fulfilled their potential.