On Right Hand-Left Hand batting combinations

Pairing a right-handed batter with a left-handed one has long been one of cricket's most rigid conventions. But with the game's rapid evolution, does it stand the test of time?

One of cricket’s longest standing tropes has been structuring a team’s batting order in a way that you can have a right-handed batter paired with a left-handed one almost at all times. Hand on heart I have been watching cricket for almost 15 years now and this belief system was set in stone since then so it’s hard to track its origins. While sometimes we tend to find these combinations in the wild fitting together naturally, like the first time I saw Gambhir and Sehwag bat together, other times they’re put in place through brute force, shuffling the batting order to devise a temporary equilibrium, like the way Delhi Capitals actively rotated Hetmyer and Iyer at no. 3 and 4 depending on whether Dhawan (a lefty) or Shaw (a righty) departed first.

Most recently this was observed with India’s batting order. First seen in the ODI series against England, Axar Patel, a left-handed bowling all-rounder who generally bats at the lower-middle/death overs for India in LOIs was promoted at no. 5 in place of KL Rahul, a right-handed batter, in the face of India’s top 4 all being right-handed batters. Speaking for myself, I am a fan of dynamic batting lineups, especially in the middle order where things can often feel constrained, and teams generally seem to comply to a rulebook or a framework of play that defines their methodologies, their approach to batting. It’s set in stone, it feels rigid, and has no place in modern day ODI cricket. Axar’s move up the order was met with criticism, since Rahul failed to do well in the first two games, but Axar was able to reap all the rewards on offer, and then some. From a strategic perspective, this gives India an additional value addition lever to a batting lineup that’s one of the most well-rounded one out there, disrupting bowling matchups while offering more scoring options in the tee end of an innings, and there’s little reason to be doubtful of what KL will be able to make of this supposedly new role bestowed upon him.

KL Rahul’s entry points in the series were overs 33.05, 37.01, and 34.04. Now that’s way off what KL’s average entry point has been at no. 5 for India which is the 21st over. However, prior to this series, KL had come out to bat with less than 20 overs remaining on 11 occasions and has scored 304 runs at an average of 50.67, so there’s little cause for worry.

So, what of Right Hand-Left Hand batting combinations? Are they still widely considered to be a tactic teams deploy to stay ahead of the game, or has one of cricket’s oldest conventions seen the end of days?

First things first, we can take a look at the proportion of Right Hand-Left Hand batting combinations teams still deploy. For the purposes of this study, we will be making use of ball-by-ball data in ODIs from 2015 till the end of 2024 (data credits to Himanish Ganjoo).

As we can see here, proportion of Right Hand-Left Hand partnerships for the first 6 wickets in hand have experience little variance in the last 10 years. The first 6 wicket partnerships refer to batting partnerships that are constituted before the fall of 6 wickets in an innings, essentially narrowing it down to batting pairs with the prowess to treasure their wicket and score runs.

Largely staying between 43-44% of all partnerships between 2015-18, it grew to 46.5% in 2019, experienced a steep decline to 39.8% in 2020, and getting back to the observed average of 44% in the three years succeeding that before hitting 37.4%, the lowest it has seen in the 10-year period.

At this point, it will be of benefit to check and assess how well teams individually have fared with their right hand-left hand batting pairs. For an apples-to-apples comparison, let’s look at how much right hand-left hand partnerships average relative to same-hand partnerships for the top 12 teams in ODIs sorted by the number of balls faced in the last 10 years. Henceforth I will be referring the comparative as RH-LH (short for Right Hand-Left Hand), and same-hand pairs (for RR or LL batting pairs).

Over the past decade, the top-performing teams in terms of RH-LH batting pair effectiveness have not necessarily been the most structurally sound ODI sides. Afghanistan and Zimbabwe lead the way, with their RH-LH pairs averaging over 30% better than their same-handed counterparts. Pakistan and West Indies follow closely with similar numbers, while the Trans-Tasman duo of Australia and New Zealand sit in the middle. At the very bottom is India, which has shown virtually no comparative advantage in RH-LH partnerships over RH-RH or LH-LH combinations.

Analyzing ODI partnerships from 2015 to 2024 reveals an interesting trend in batting combinations. Historically, right-hand (RH) and left-hand (LH) pairs have been 15-20% more effective than same-handed partnerships, a pattern that has largely persisted over the years. However, there was a striking peak in 2020—a year heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, which also saw the fewest ODIs played in the last 10 years (44). During that period, RH-LH pairs outperformed their same-handed counterparts by a staggering 45%.

Since then, the performance gap has gradually narrowed, with the median advantage of 20% shrinking to just 10% in 2024—the same year that saw the lowest proportion of RH-LH partnerships being formed. While this doesn't definitively indicate the decline of mixed-handed batting effectiveness, the trend is certainly noticeable.

The graph above illustrates the scoring patterns of RH-LH partnerships compared to same-hand partnerships across different phases of an ODI innings. To provide a clearer perspective, I’ve divided a 50-over innings into four key phases: the first powerplay (overs 1-10), the middle overs split into two segments (overs 11-25 and 26-40), and the death overs (overs 41-50). By comparing relative average (mean RH-LH average / mean same-hand average) and relative strike rate (mean RH-LH SR / mean same-hand SR), we can gain insight into how RH-LH pairs adapt their approach—when they accelerate, when they exercise caution, and what factors contribute to their superior performance.

The pattern that emerges is quite intriguing. In the early overs (1-10), RH-LH pairs demonstrate superior wicket protection while maintaining a scoring rate at par with same-hand partnerships. During this phase, their average is 30% higher, while the strike rate remains almost identical. As the innings progresses, mixed-handed pairs begin leveraging their advantage by increasing their scoring rate. This acceleration, however, comes with a dip in their relative average during the middle overs—though they still outperform same-handed pairs by 20-25%. In the death overs, the trend reverses, with the relative average rising while the relative strike rate slightly declines.

So, what enables RH-LH pairs to bat just that tad bit better than same-hand pairs w.r.t. both the average and SR. We can look at how much their boundary-scoring rates vary to get a clearer idea of it.

One might naturally assume that RH-LH batting pairs have an advantage in finding boundaries over same-hand partnerships, primarily due to the way their shot-making options expand against fielding restrictions. With more areas to target and greater flexibility in countering different lengths, they typically have a broader range of scoring opportunities.

In 2015, RH-LH partnerships were scoring a boundary every 12 balls, slightly outperforming same-hand pairs, who managed one every 12.3 balls. Since then, RH-LH pairs have either matched or surpassed same-hand partnerships in terms of balls per boundary in 2018, 2019, and most recently in 2023, maintaining an edge for six years. However, 2024 marked a noticeable shift, with RH-LH partnerships requiring more deliveries per boundary than their same-hand counterparts. A rare anomaly in what has otherwise been a dominant trend—raising questions about what caused this sudden dip in efficiency.

Hitting sixes in ODIs is a tougher challenge. In 2015, RH-LH pairs cleared the ropes every 62 balls, slightly ahead of same-hand pairs, who managed one every 64 balls. This comparative trend in six-hitting has remained consistent over the past decade, with 2020 standing out as the biggest spike—RH-LH pairs striking a six every 57 balls, while same-hand pairs did so every 70 balls. Given that most grounds have one side with a shorter boundary, making six-hitting easier, RH-LH partnerships have historically exploited this advantage more effectively.

Another very interesting aspect of the dynamics of having two different-handed batters on the crease is how much it tinkers the bowling plans of their opponents, the degree to which it influences the distribution of overs allocated to different kinds of bowlers.

Bowling in ODIs, especially in the middle phase of an innings, has been largely templatized. While the first 10 and the last 10 overs are mostly dominated by quicks, the 30 overs in the middle are spread out a little more equitably. I looked at the distribution of bowling styles to same-hand partnerships and RH-LH partnerships between overs 11-40, and I could easily make out the way a bowling captain changes his tactics in response.

Since 2015, nearly 50% of the overs bowled between the 11th and 40th overs have come from Off-break (OB), Leg-break (LB), and Slow Left Arm (SLA) spinners for both RH-LH and same-hand partnerships, with the split being 49.4% and 49.2%, respectively. However, the distribution within these spin types varies significantly.

When two same-handed batters are at the crease, the workload is more evenly distributed—OB (17.8%), LB (17.2%), and SLA (14.2%). In contrast, RH-LH pairs face Off-breaks far more frequently (20.6%) compared to same-hand partnerships (17.2%). Conversely, SLA bowlers are often held back against RH-LH pairs, bowling only 15.8% of the time, compared to 17.8% against same-hand duos.

This reluctance to bowl SLA to RH-LH pairs is not without reason—they perform significantly better against this bowling type. In fact, across all bowling styles, RH-LH pairs consistently outperform same-hand partnerships, sometimes by a staggering margin. The graph below illustrates the batting averages of same-hand and RH-LH partnerships against various bowling styles in overs 11-40 from 2015 to 2024. SLA bowlers, who are used more frequently against same-hand pairs, manage to break these partnerships every 34 runs on average. However, when facing RH-LH duos, they concede nearly 40 runs before securing a breakthrough.

This trend of RH-LH dominance extends across all bowling types over a substantial period, reinforcing the idea that such partnerships are inherently more resilient and harder to dislodge. Simply put, RH-LH pairs are a tougher nut to crack.

RH-LH batting pairs have historically offered a strategic edge, disrupting bowlers and enhancing scoring opportunities. While they’ve consistently outperformed same-hand pairs, their advantage has narrowed in recent years, with 2024 marking the lowest proportion of such partnerships. This shift can be suggestive of teams now prioritizing role clarity over forced RH-LH combinations. However, their strengths—better boundary scoring, resilience against spin, and tactical flexibility are still valuable.