The rise and rise of Jofra Archer continued this week with the young West Indian Englishman continuing to develop his acumen as an all rounder. Last week I compared the young man to David Warner and said that what the former brought to the party was the ability to change a game with bat, ball and in the field - this continued this week. Strangely enough, for a player that is widely considered a bowler, he is not at the top of the tree this week for his wickets alone. Despite the fact he got only two wickets in the County Championship Divison 2 game against Derbyshire and a further one in the T20 blast game vs Durham, he also picked up 65 points in maidens and a further 60 for some stranglingly low economies. He has also been the ambassador for a trend that we have started to see in the longer form cricket for posting heady strike rates, the likes of which were never seen in years gone by. Archer's 31 off 19 balls was not the only exhibition of hard hitting this week. Aaron Finch's 32 off 34 balls for Surrey against Lancashire and Jos Buttler's 39 off 32 balls for England against India all stand out in the strike rate column. It is perhaps no surprise that the trio of Archer, Finch and Buttler - whilst all very much impressing in the longer form of the game - are forged as batsmen in the pyrotechnical fires of T20 and are able to bring this across to the Test or County Championship arena. This is all well and good in certain scenarios as long as it is controlled and a mode that you can switch in and out of as you please; if it is a sign of a one track mind you better hope that that track is flat.
There have been times when Joe Root and Virat Kohli's performances have been so similar it has been almost unbelievable. This was put to bed emphatically this week with Virat Kohli pulling away from his counterpart in a dramatic fashion. The 260 points scored by the Indian captain by far outstrips the paltry 59 scored by Root. This has been underlined by Kohli's sudden lurch up the overall table. Kohli has jumped over Sunil Narine into 6th place. In contrast Joe Root has dropped two places down the table to tenth, having been overtaken by Jofra Archer and Kane Williamson. For the pair, who have been so long inseparable in 7th and 8th place it really is a strong upper hand for the touring captain. Root's position in the top ten is unchallenged for now due to the fact there is a gap of 688 between him and the next highest scoring active player in Ravi Ashwin - but for the Yorkshireman to be looking down rather than up the table must be dispiriting for him.
That old adage of there being nothing either good or bad but thinking making it so could be put to the Test depending on which one of our representatives you ask about the quality of the CPL. Two players who would err on the thinking bad side would be Sunil Narine and Hashim Amla. Sunil Narine, for the third time in 2018, registered a 0-point game in Trinidad and Tobago's outing against Jamaica - getting a duck and figures of 0-42. It again makes you wonder how a player so devastating in the IPL falls short so often in other T20 franchises. Another player trying his hand in the CPL is Hashim Amla who continues a rather unimpressive run of form with a score of just 15 from Barbados' game against Jamaica. On the other side of this coin is two players who have been rather used to turning over coins and seeing huge piles of steaming excrement rather than any kind of luck. Whilst David Warner's form with the bat is still not electric, he scored two consecutive scores over ten for the first time since July this week and got 95 points. Steve Smith was rather more impressive and posted 143 which included 40 points for bowling - an unusually high yield for him. Whilst 95 and 143 are not hugely impressive scores they are enough for both men to leapfrog Ravi Jadeja and make their first upward movement in the game since their banishment from mainstream cricket. Their next target is fellow Australian Mitchell Marsh in 19th place. The bowler, who has not played since March, is 168 points ahead of Warner and 168 for Smith.
Week
Jofra Archer- 271
Virat Kohli- 260
Simon Harmer - 253
Jos Buttler - 235
Rashid Khan - 200
Kane Williamson- 188
Steve Smith- 143
Jeetan Patel- 107
Ravi Ashwin - 105
David Warner - 97
Aaron Finch-95
Joe Root - 59
Hashim Amla - 15
Sunil Narine - 0
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp
George Bailey - dnp
Quinton De Kock- dnp
AB De Villiers- dnp
JP Duminy - dnp
Dean Elgar - dnp
Ravi Jadeja - dnp
Nathan Lyon - dnp
Mitchell Marsh- dnp
Shaun Marsh - dnp
Overall
Simon Harmer - 4699
Jeetan Patel - 4233
Rashid Khan - 4019
Jos Buttler - 3713
Aaron Finch - 3343
Virat Kohli- 3309
Jofra Archer - 3181
Sunil Narine- 3131
Kane Williamson - 3094
Joe Root - 3073
Shakib Al Hasan - 2582
Ravi Ashwin - 2385
JP Duminy - 2336
Quinton de Kock - 2020
AB De Villiers- 2010
Hashim Amla - 2008
Nathan Lyon - 1833
Dean Elgar- 1686
Shaun Marsh- 1498
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
David Warner - 1257
Steve Smith - 1227
Ravi Jadeja - 1226
George Bailey - 631
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