Shai Hope - The Best Cricketer of the Week

The second chapter of the 2019 cricket season is coming to a close. Chapter one was focussed on the BBL, domestic cricket in the sub continent and international matches. Chapter two's main talking points were the IPL and the start of the English cricket season. Shai Hope did not feature in any of these tournaments so subsequently saw himself slide down the rankings. When he laid down his bat at the end of West Indies' series against England, he had 465 and was in the lower middle half of the table. His eight inactive weeks then saw him end last week with only Jack Leach separating him from the bottom of the table. Even when he was playing regularly, his form was not electric with an average of 18.29 over his 7 ODI and T20 games against England. This week has seen him turn things round with two stellar performances against Ireland and Bangladesh in which he scored a cumulative 279 runs in three days. This has seen him leapfrog four players in the overall league, including last week's wunderkind Shubman Gill. He is the only player in the bottom third of our players to be featuring in the World Cup so this sharp uptick in points may continue over the coming months - especially if West Indies over perform. 

Hope's lunge up the table is indicative of a trend that we have seen this week of Cricketers lower down the table making the big points whilst the top five keep ticking over. The top five have stayed the top five for the last three weeks with some minor adjustments in order. This being said, Glenn Maxwell has now stretched his lead at the top of the table to a phenomenal 1910 meaning that two of our second place player - Rashid Khan - would still not make up one Glenn Maxwell. Australian dominance aside the larger totals this week have come from players making the leap from the foot of the table. Last week's Cricketer of the Week, Wayne Parnell continues to push up the table with another solid score of 181 that now sees him just behind Kane Williamson in the middle of the table. Parnell's fellow Worcestershire player, Callum Ferguson also made a big leap thanks to his first century since the last week in January. His 204 points in a week is his second highest weekly yield in 2019 and has seen him overtake Joe Burns, Shubman Gill and Abdur Razzak to move into 17th place. 

In amongst these surging players sees a group of Cricketers trying to get themselves out of the peloton and in to challenging for the top five. Most notable from these over the last few weeks has been Jeetan Patel. He finishes in seventh place this week and has now spent the last five weeks finishing in eight place or higher - including being the best Cricketer of the Week a fortnight ago. In these five weeks, Patel has moved from 15th place to 8th and is now a solidly competitive top ten performer, a mere handful of points between players that have been in the overall top five such as Rohit Sharma and Joe Root. Another player who is looking to mount their comeback in this year's competition is Shakib Al Hasan. A barnstorming BPL followed by a forgettable IPL saw the Bangladesh captain riding high and then plummet as low as 13th last week. A return to international duty has seen Shakib back in his element and recording his highest score since January. He has overtaken the like of Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and dark horse Simon Harmer to plop himself back into the top ten before he begins his World Cup campaign. Whilst the top five are fairly fixed at this moment in time, there is a vast array of players mounting a charge from behind and the weight of points will soon put pressure on those front runners......except for maybe Glenn Maxwell. 

Week

Shai Hope - 389
Shakib Al Hasan 305
Glenn Maxwell - 232
Callum Ferguson - 204
Wayne Parnell - 181
Simon Harmer - 153
Jeetan Patel - 118 
Rohit Sharma - 99
Rashid Khan - 70
Kane Williamson - 48
Mohammad Abbas - 44
Shreyas Iyer- 31
Shubman Gill - 9

Jonny Bairstow- dnp 
Joe Burns - dnp 
Jos Buttler - dnp 
Virat Kohli - dnp 
Jack Leach- dnp 
Morne Morkel - dnp 
Duanne Olivier - dnp 
Abdur Razzak- dnp 
Joe Root - dnp 
Ben Stokes - dnp 
Kuldeep Yadav - dnp 

Overall 

Glenn Maxwell - 3808
Rashid Khan - 1898
Shreyas Iyer - 1887
Virat Kohli- 1789
Jonny Bairstow - 1671
Joe Root- 1606
Rohit Sharma - 1604
Jeetan Patel - 1546
Shakib Al Hasan - 1525
Ben Stokes - 1483
Simon Harmer - 1460
Duanne Olivier - 1397
Jos Buttler - 1381
Kane Williamson - 1324
Wayne Parnell - 1197
Kuldeep Yadav - 1022
Callum Ferguson - 902
Abdur Razzak- 898
Shai Hope - 854
Shubman Gill - 846
Joe Burns - 699
Morne Morkel - 654
Mohammad Abbas - 573
Jack Leach - 359