The pressure of cricket captaincy may bring out the best in batters but not bowlers, according to international research, which found that batting captains typically averaged around 16% more runs than non-captain batters, while bowling captains took around 18% fewer wickets on average than non-captain-bowlers. The research analysed individual and team performance in 4,418 men’s One-Day International cricket matches, and 2,863 individual players, between 1971 and 2024. The researchers also found that average performance for both batting and bowling captains decreases markedly post-captaincy, even falling below pre-captaincy levels.
