If this week is anything to go by, India are going to be very dominant on this list in 2019...and may very well be very dominant in general in this World Cup year. The upward thrust of Indian players has been characterised by Kuldeep Yadav who had yet to register any points last week and now finds himself best Cricketer of the Week and second in the overall table for 2019. What is even more impressive is the fact that he has put in equally as impressive displays in both Test and ODI cricket in the last week; 5 wickets coming from the longest format and a further two from this morning's loss to Australia. His resurgence puts him in the mix of emerging bowlers, alongside Mohammad Abbas and Duanne Olivier, who could really push on and prove themselves in 2019. Whilst he is not mentioned as much as his Pakistani and South African compatriots, I consider him to be one of the biggest emerging talents in all formats of the game. Kuldeep is joined by Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill as Indian players who have surged up the table this week. The batting exploits of these two players (133 from Rohit and 99 from Gill) sees the pair enter a top ten dominated by Indian talent.
Throughout 2018 Simon Harmer and Rashid Khan were jostling for position at the top of the overall table. They have both taken different routes into 2019. Despite troubling personal circumstances Rashid has featured three times for Adelaide and registered 204 points, placing him fourth overall at this early point. Simon Harmer is playing in the slightly less glamorous South African 4-Day Franchise Series and has only got one fixture under his belt. His 170 is good enough for the third highest score of the week but he is in joint seventh overall. This is the nature of their two respective cricketing beasts. Rashid favours T20 cricket so will move more smoothly up the table whilst Harmer's movement will be more jagged and sporadic. I expect both to be in the mix by the end of the year. Jeetan Patel seems to have started slowly as well. Currently sitting in third last position of any player to have registered points in 2019, he is actually in a better position than he was last year. At this point in 2018, he had a mere 58 points compared to his 90 this time out. Could his better start to the year see him finish higher than his third position from last year?
For many the Big Bash League bubble has burst in 2019. With an increase in fixtures, many say that their has been a decline in quality of performance and a general depreciation of the league. This has certainly been borne out by some very flaccid performances from the contributors on our list that have been playing in the tournament this week. The most shocking example of this is Jos Buttler, who finished his spell with Sydney Thunder with a score of just 5. Taking his BBL average from 44.66 to 39 and ruining his spell of scores of over 20. A similar pattern has been seen by Buttler's teammate Callum Ferguson, whose two +40 scores have been followed up by scores of 0 and 16. Two such players that didn't have this problem is Joe Root and Joe Burns whose performances throughout the whole of the BBL have been absolutely dire. Root was hoping to put himself in the T20 franchise window with this tournament but may just have put the nail in the coffin of that particular venture. He ended the tournament with a game that scored him the grand total of zero points despite having batted and fielded. Burns' form in the Sheffield Shield has been rewarded with a call up to the Australian Test team this week but his parade of single figure scores in the BBL sees him the lowest scoring player in the overall league to have played in both weeks. All four of these players are moving onto different forms of cricket in the next few weeks and will be hoping that the change will also change their fortunes.
Throughout 2018 Simon Harmer and Rashid Khan were jostling for position at the top of the overall table. They have both taken different routes into 2019. Despite troubling personal circumstances Rashid has featured three times for Adelaide and registered 204 points, placing him fourth overall at this early point. Simon Harmer is playing in the slightly less glamorous South African 4-Day Franchise Series and has only got one fixture under his belt. His 170 is good enough for the third highest score of the week but he is in joint seventh overall. This is the nature of their two respective cricketing beasts. Rashid favours T20 cricket so will move more smoothly up the table whilst Harmer's movement will be more jagged and sporadic. I expect both to be in the mix by the end of the year. Jeetan Patel seems to have started slowly as well. Currently sitting in third last position of any player to have registered points in 2019, he is actually in a better position than he was last year. At this point in 2018, he had a mere 58 points compared to his 90 this time out. Could his better start to the year see him finish higher than his third position from last year?
For many the Big Bash League bubble has burst in 2019. With an increase in fixtures, many say that their has been a decline in quality of performance and a general depreciation of the league. This has certainly been borne out by some very flaccid performances from the contributors on our list that have been playing in the tournament this week. The most shocking example of this is Jos Buttler, who finished his spell with Sydney Thunder with a score of just 5. Taking his BBL average from 44.66 to 39 and ruining his spell of scores of over 20. A similar pattern has been seen by Buttler's teammate Callum Ferguson, whose two +40 scores have been followed up by scores of 0 and 16. Two such players that didn't have this problem is Joe Root and Joe Burns whose performances throughout the whole of the BBL have been absolutely dire. Root was hoping to put himself in the T20 franchise window with this tournament but may just have put the nail in the coffin of that particular venture. He ended the tournament with a game that scored him the grand total of zero points despite having batted and fielded. Burns' form in the Sheffield Shield has been rewarded with a call up to the Australian Test team this week but his parade of single figure scores in the BBL sees him the lowest scoring player in the overall league to have played in both weeks. All four of these players are moving onto different forms of cricket in the next few weeks and will be hoping that the change will also change their fortunes.
Week
Kuldeep Yadav - 223
Rohit Sharma - 193
Simon Harmer - 170
Shakib Al Hasan - 166
Shubman Gill - 129
Kane Williamson - 115
Rashid Khan - 93
Jeetan Patel - 40
Glenn Maxwell - 31
Virat Kohli - 26
Callum Ferguson - 16
Jos Buttler - 5
Joe Burns - 2
Joe Root- 0
Mohammad Abbas - dnp
Duanne Olivier - dnp
Jonny Bairstow - ytp
Shai Hope - ytp
Shreyas Iyer - ytp
Jack Leach - ytp
Marne Morkel - ytp
Wayne Parnell - ytp
Abdur Razzak - ytp
Ben Stokes - ytp
Overall
Kane Williamson - 232
Kuldeep Yadav - 223
Shakib Al Hasan - 208
Rashid Khan - 204
Glenn Maxwell - 195
Rohit Sharma - 193
Simon Harmer - 170
Duanne Olivier - 170
Shubman Gill - 129
Jos Buttler - 118
Mohammad Abbas - 110
Callum Ferguson - 78
Joe Root- 51
Jeetan Patel - 90
Joe Burns - 36
Virat Kohli- 26
Jonny Bairstow - ytp
Shai Hope - ytp
Shreyas Iyer - ytp
Jack Leach - ytp
Morne Morkel - ytp
Wayne Parnell - ytp
Abdur Razzak- ytp
Ben Stokes - ytp
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