Our list shows no bias. Batsmen are dealt with in the same way as bowlers. The Test favourite is on an equal playing field to the T20 mercenary. One thing that you can be sure of is that if you score two centuries in a week, you are going to be claiming top spot. Virat Kohli, this week's winner, has not claimed the title as many times as you would have thought. This is only his fifth time at the pinnacle of our list. Out of his previous four table-topping performances three have been whilst representing Bangalore. The other? Well, that was for a week where he scored two hundreds in two ODIs against West Indies. To pull off that feat once is a great achievement - to do so twice shows the man is a true ODI legend. As well as taking his inaugural Cricketer of the Week accolade for 2019, he also climbs into the overall top five for the first time this year - quite an achievement when you consider he has been inactive for 40% of gameweeks. He finds himself cheek by jowel with his old enemy from 2018. Joe Root is just in front of him in fourth place. The two captains spent all of 2018 in a dog fight - and with just 95 points between them we look set for a similar battle this time out.
It was just a matter of time as to when Shakib Al Hasan would lose his overall top spot - and it has taken rather longer than many would have thought. Three weeks ago it seemed like Ben Stokes was going to overtake the Bangladesh captain but a subsequent dip in form and a break from the game left the field open for Glenn Maxwell. Last week he trailed Shakib by a solitary point but now has a lead of 150. Strangely enough a wicket was the way that Maxwell initially eased into top spot however he then followed that up with 51 runs for Australia in two ODIs against India. Again we have seen an extension of the rule I set out last week: If Maxwell scores big Australia win. Whilst the performances of Usman Khawaja and Aaron Finch would have caught the eye more, 47 off 31 balls for Maxwell continued to push the envelope for the Aussies in Friday's game. The stellar run of form that has seen Maxwell move up our overall table has also seen him move up the batting order for his national team. Starting this series at 7, he came in at first drop for yesterday's ODI. Perhaps an acknowledgment of his big hitting prowess.
This week has seen two of our favourites hope to turn over a new leaf in 2019 by displaying something a little different to what we have seen from them thus far. Last year Rashid Khan's party trick was getting wickets in clusters and backing that up with explosive batting. So far we have seen him struggle to combine these facets of his game. Sometimes getting one, rarely getting two, oftentimes getting none. Even this week, where he got his highest score of the year and claimed second place on our weekly table, he picked up 50 economy points but just three wickets against the comparatively fragile batsmen of Ireland. Even his approach to batting seems markedly different. For someone whose ODI batting average is 99.86, to see Rashid grinding out 52 off 58 balls batting at number nine is odd to say the least. I have often speculated that Rashid is trying to adapt himself into something of an allrounder- perhaps he used this game to practice a new approach to his batting. Another player that showed us something different was Jeetan Patel. Last year's third place finisher has began the year out of sorts. Last week he was in the bottom five of all contributors and only finds himself one better this week despite getting 149 - by far his biggest total of the year. This is largely thanks to a stunning cameo of 20 off 11 balls with the bat - something almost unheard of from the Kiwi. Patel is usually a player associated with combining large hauls of wickets with economies regularly under 4. So far this year he is struggling with both. Against Canterbury he broke one of these hoodoos and managed to sort out his economy but we still await the Patel who can gut a batting order. Both Patel and Khan were in the mix all the way through 2018, if they keep up the form they have shown this week they could be working up the league in no time.
Week
Virat Kohli- 319
Rashid Khan - 210
Kuldeep Yadav- 183
Jonny Bairstow - 160
Glenn Maxwell - 151
Jeetan Patel - 149
Shreyas Iyer - 118
Joe Root - 105
Mohammad Abbas - 70
Callum Ferguson - 68
Abdur Razzak - 51
Joe Burns - 48
Shai Hope - 43
Rohit Sharma - 14
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp
Jos Buttler - dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Jack Leach- dnp
Duanne Olivier - dnp
Wayne Parnell - dnp
Ben Stokes - dnp
Kane Williamson - dnp
Morne Morkel- ytp
Overall
Glenn Maxwell - 1321
Shakib Al Hasan - 1171
Ben Stokes - 1160
Joe Root- 1098
Virat Kohli- 1003
Shreyas Iyer - 983
Rashid Khan - 979
Kane Williamson - 971
Kuldeep Yadav - 811
Duanne Olivier - 793
Jos Buttler - 760
Jonny Bairstow - 759
Rohit Sharma - 753
Callum Ferguson - 671
Joe Burns - 604
Simon Harmer - 500
Shai Hope - 465
Jeetan Patel - 446
Shubman Gill - 340
Mohammad Abbas - 331
Abdur Razzak- 178
Wayne Parnell - 148
Jack Leach - 65
Morne Morkel - ytp
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