---
date: "2025-12-09T05:36:05Z"
categories:
  - llms
  - linkedin
description: I used ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to determine a single composite metric for ranking India's greatest batsmen. The LLMs favored a 'Batting Average * log(Total Runs)' calculation, which I visualized to compare eras across cricket history.
keywords: [cricket, data visualization, chatgpt, indian batsmen, composite metrics, batting average, claude, gemini]
---

When my father mentioned that Virat Kohli scored a century (again) against South Africa, I wondered how he compared to the likes of Tendulkar and Gavaskar.

I asked ChatGPT:

_If you had to evaluate the quality of Indian batsmen over time_, _what single metric_ (_possibly composite_) _would you use_?

_Evaluate the top Indian batsmen in history on this metric_. _Plot them over their active years_ (_X_-_axis_) _along with the metric_ (_Y_-_axis_), _labelled with the player names_, _on a beautiful visualization_.

```
It picked a simple metric: Batting Average * log(Total Runs).
```

Claude and Gemini, too, preferred simple metrics that favored the batting average or total runs. Strike rate, relative to era, win rate impact, etc. were all excluded.

(Sadly, any metric that misses Kapil Dev feels a bit... incomplete.)

Data story: https://sanand0.github.io/datastories/indian-batting-greats/

![](https://files.s-anand.net/images/2025-12-08-greatest-batsman-over-time-linkedin.jpg)

[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sanand0_when-my-father-mentioned-that-virat-kohli-activity-7402679838437744640--oUa)