Jos Buttler - The Best Cricketer of the Week.

There is a peculiar circularity to the fact that we end the year in the exact same position as we began it - awarding Jos Buttler as Cricketer of the Week for his performances in the BBL. In Week One he gained 192 points with 102 runs. In Week Fifty-Two he bagged 262 with 152 coming from the bat. It is fitting reward for the (now) English Test Cricketer and is indicative of his skill. For many cricketing aficionados he is the most technically accurate batsman in the world - this is borne out by the fact he is second only to Virat Kohli (the most prolific batsman in the world) in terms of out and out batsmen in our overall league. The fact that he is competing in the same BBL team as his England captain Joe Root forces you to compare the two against each other. Before being granted the England captaincy, many drooled over the batting prowess of the Yorkshire man. Many also feared that, after succeeding Alistair Cook, Joe Root's batting would wain. Lamentably this has been borne out with Root looking more than average this year and is a full 612 points behind Buttler. With lots of English action on the cards in 2019, I expect Buttler to go from strength to strength next year. 

I have coined the term 'doing a Jadeja' this year and, despite the fact he is not on our list of Cricketers for 2019, I think it might stick around. It happened again this week. After being injured/ignored/poorly managed (depending on what Indian media outlet you paid heed to) for the first two Tests against Australia, Jadeja came back roaring. Despite the fact that five wickets is something of a meagre haul - especially in comparison to his compatriot Jasprit Bumrah - it was maidens and his economy that helped him surge up the weekly table and claim second place. This sense of surging is a familiar experience for the Saurashtra man. At the start of April, Jadeja was rock bottom of the overall table and was only just lifted off that by George Bailey, Steve Smith and David Warner as the English Summer arrived. It is only in the latter third of the year that we have seen a beleaguered Ravi Jadeja lurch his way, unevenly, up the table until he has come to rest in his final position - a creditable mid-table. As I have suggested he is not being carried over to our list in 2019 but it will be fascinating to see whether his spell in the Indian team will continue or whether he will lose his appeal as flavour of the month. One thing we must bear in mind however is that after 40 Tests, Jadeja has the most wickets by a left arm bowler in the history of Test cricket. Not too shabby at all. 

Oh George. You are such a tease. As I suggested above, George Bailey has been rock bottom of our overall table since the beginning of May - however the plucky Aussie has reared his head up occasionally with a cheeky glimpse of his potential. No more so than in his final week on our list. He has evolved into some latter day Chris Gayle this week with two explosive performances for Hobart that stand out in stark contrast to some of his more mundane outings throughout the rest of the year. His 27* against Melbourne Stars came off 18 balls. This was then followed by an even more impressive 23 off 10 balls against Sydney Thunder. This sees him pick up an unprecedented 70 points off strike rate alone and finish a creditable seventh in our weekly list. If the year was only a few weeks longer Bailey might have even escaped from the wooden spoon position. He is now just 31 points off of his fellow Aussie, Steve Smith, however time has run out on the veteran and he languishes in very last place for 2018. It really was not a wonderful life for Bailey this year. 

Week

Jos Buttler - 262
Ravi Ashwin- 259
Rashid Khan - 156
Nathan Lyon - 127
Virat Kohli- 122
George Bailey - 121 
Jofra Archer- 120
Dean Elgar - 102
Hashim Amla- 91
Quinton De Kock- 85
Shaun Marsh- 73
Kane Williamson - 70
Mitchell Marsh- 69
Jeetan Patel - 37
Joe Root - 36
Aaron Finch- 31
Ravi Ashwin- dnp 
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp 
AB De Villiers- dnp 
JP Duminy - dnp 
Simon Harmer - dnp
Sunil Narine- dnp 
Steve Smith- dnp 
David Warner - dnp 

Overall

Simon Harmer - 8426
Rashid Khan - 6291
Jeetan Patel - 5856
Virat Kohli- 4977
Jos Buttler - 4846
Jofra Archer - 4553
Nathan Lyon - 4507
Sunil Narine- 4377
Kane Williamson - 4251
Joe Root - 4234
Aaron Finch - 4180
Ravi Ashwin - 3845
Shakib Al Hasan - 3804
Ravi Jadeja - 3562
Quinton de Kock - 3166
Mitchell Marsh - 2978
Dean Elgar- 2838
Shaun Marsh- 2599
AB De Villiers- 2542
JP Duminy - 2496
Hashim Amla - 2374
David Warner - 1401
Steve Smith - 1350
George Bailey - 1319