How it works

How your XI is rated and played.

No hidden tricks: real career numbers, one method, the same for every player.

1. The draft

You get six spins. Each spin draws a combination such as “India, 1990s” (Test), “Australia, 2000s” (ODI, T20I) or “Mumbai Indians, 2013–17” (IPL). The first spin gives you one pick and each of the other five gives two, so you end with eleven players. A spin never repeats a combination you have already had, and you get one respin of the nation or team and one of the era.

The eleven spots are fixed: two openers, three middle-order batters, one wicketkeeper, two all-rounders or spinners, and three fast bowlers. A pick that would leave your XI impossible to complete is blocked, with the reason shown. In the IPL game at most four players may be overseas, as in the real league.

2. Comparing players

Every player is compared with every other player in the same format, never across formats and never split by era or nation. A Test batter is measured on batting average, runs per match and how often he made a hundred. A Test bowler is measured on bowling average, wickets per match, five-wicket hauls and ten-wicket matches. In the white-ball games strike rate and economy count too, and in T20I and the IPL they count the most (40%). All-rounders are measured on both batting and bowling.

Two corrections keep the comparison fair. A long career counts for more than a short one, so a brilliant ten-match spell does not outrank twenty years of excellence. And a short career is pulled back toward the average, because a handful of matches proves little. In the IPL, strike rates and economy rates are scaled to the era they were played in, because the league has become faster and higher scoring over time. The cards always show the real, unscaled numbers.

You never see a rating for any single player. The cards show career numbers and the choice is yours.

3. Scoring a team

A team’s score is 40% batting, 50% bowling and 10% fielding (catches and stumpings per match). The batting side counts openers, middle order, the keeper and the batting of all-rounders; the bowling side counts the bowlers and the bowling of all-rounders. A player is scored in the role of the spot you put him in: a wicketkeeper is scored as a batter, a specialist bowler as a bowler.

The score is only shown for a complete XI, so you cannot work out one player’s rating by adding and removing him.

4. The five-match series

The gap between your team’s score and the opponent’s decides the series scoreline: from 0–5 to 5–0. A small element of luck is added, but it is worked out from your XI, so the same eleven always gets the same series. Test series can include a draw; ODI, T20I and IPL matches always have a winner. Each match is given a ground, a result that fits the scoreline and a standout performer or two. This is a storyline built from the numbers, not a ball-by-ball simulation.

5. The opponents

The opponent never changes, so every result is comparable. See the World XI and what its players did, and the ODI, T20I and IPL pages for the other three.

Where the data comes from

Test careers come from a hand-checked data set built from public career records. ODI, T20I and IPL figures are built from Cricsheet’s ball-by-ball data (Open Data Commons Attribution licence) and official career totals. Missing data is left out and never estimated. If you find a mistake, tell us at hello@beatmy11.com.

Last updated 8 October 2026.