The cosmic lords of cricket are not being kind to England at the moment. Jos Buttler, the most impressive player from last week, has joined up with the England team and his points have plummeted accordingly. He has been usurped by Nathan Lyon who began this Ashes tournament by being an unlikely aggressor and ended it with five wickets in the final Test. England fans were left wishing it wasn't him that was on the receiving end of a Bairstow hello. This, added to a wicket in his return to the BBL for the Adelaide Strikers, puts him top of the tree for Week 2 and third highest on the overall rankings. The only saving grace is that the spinner is still persona non grata for white ball cricket.
By all accounts it has been a topsy turvy week for those players who were flying high from their BBL involvement last week. Buttler is joined by Rashid Khan and Jofra Archer - both of whom got scores in the hundreds last week but this week have been more underwhelming. The only thing that Archer can, literally, cling on to his superb return catch from Hobart Hurricanes victory over Brisbane Heat.
The most concerning player of the BBL bunch is George Bailey. With 16 runs from the last three matches, the Australian batsman is looking dramatically out of touch. The only saving grace for the Hobart player is his sharp performances in the field, where he is picking up more points than he has with his batting. His bad week has been further highlighted by the fact he was heavily implicated in the poor umpiring decision that marred the game against Brisbane. The only way is up for the Tasmanian.
On the other end of the scale from the razamataz of the BBL, two of the biggest performers so far this month are exiled South Africans playing in the rather more parochial Momentum One Day Cup. Despite the success of their international kinsmen, JP Duminy and Simon Harmer are doing rather well in this tournament and have the luxury of playing twice in a week. Duminy has been especially eye catching this week with scores of 81 and 22 for the Cape Cobras. His yield of 188 points this week surprisingly puts him as the most successful cricketer from our list after two weeks of January. The make or break moment for Duminy is his return to the international fold for the ODI against India. Can he continue this form or will he fade away?
By the time the year is up Kohli and Smith's years will feature heavily in the highlights reel but in the first fortnight they have been underwhelming. Smith and, to a lesser extent, David Warner have had their scores capped by a less than inspiring England performance that saw Australia limited to just one innings. There is no such excuse for Virat Kohli who joins Hashim Amla and Dean Elgar in a list of batsmen who are underperforming in this Test. The former two players shared 8 runs between them in the First Test with Elgar's fine form ending with a score of 25. With the Second Test underway some of these batsmen are putting themselves back on the right track but it is a rare instance indeed to see them so low in the overall rankings.
Week 2 Totals
Nathan Lyon - 275
Joe Root- 226
Shaun Marsh- 196
JP Duminy - 188
Mitchell Marsh - 171
Kane Williamson - 152
Simon Harmer 151
AB De Villiers- 140
Ravi Ashwin - 134
Steve Smith - 133
Quinton de Kock- 131
Rashid Khan - 85
David Warner - 76
Jos Buttler - 68
Jofra Archer - 50
Dean Elgar - 45
Virat Kohli- 43
George Bailey - 35
Jeetan Patel - 26
Hashim Amla - 7
Aaron Finch- 2
Total
JP Duminy - 339
Kane Williamson- 336
Nathan Lyon - 275
Simon Harmer -263
Jos Buttler - 260
Joe Root - 226
Rashid Khan - 225
Jofra Archer- 210
Shaun Marsh - 196
Aaron Finch - 176
Mitchell Marsh- 171
Ab De Villiers - 140
Ravi Ashwin - 134
Steve Smith - 133
Quinton de Kock - 131
David Warner - 76
Jeetan Patel - 58
George Bailey - 56
Dean Elgar - 45
Virat Kohli - 43
Hashim Amla - 7
Yet to play
Sunil Narine, Shakib Al-Hassan, Ravindra Jadeja
No comments:
Post a Comment