Rohit Sharma has hit three centuries in a calendar week. Let's just stop and marvel at that. The century. The focus and goal for every batsmen. That rare of things. And he just goes ahead and helps himself to three in a week. It will come as little surprise to you that Rohit Sharma is our Cricketer of the Week for his 309 runs against England, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This haul of centuries managed to see The Hitman break Kumar Sangakkara's record of 4 centuries in a World Cup tournament as he takes his tally up to five. Rohit has used the World Cup to help himself surge up the table. At the start of the tournament, Rohit was a long way of the pace in a distant 12th with just 1631 points. This marked a massive fall from grace since his three week spell in the overall top 5 in February. Throughout the group stages, Rohit has accrued 966 points in his nine games and has moved up into eighth place. With another two games potentially in the pipeline it would be a tall order for Sharma to overhaul the 278 points keeping him out of the top 5 but lest we forget; three centuries in a week. Who can dictate what is possible in that kind of form?
With the group stages of the World Cup done and dusted, three of the twelve World Cup players in our overall list have been eliminated with the further nine representing India, England or New Zealand. The three players to who we bid adieu have all had very different World Cup experiences. The foremost loss to the tournament is Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan who has used 2019 as his yo-yo. After being our best Cricketer in the world for the first 6 weeks, his stock fell dramatically so that by the time the first game of the World Cup started he was in a lowly 11th position with 1704 points. Fast forward 8 games and Shakib is the third highest run scorer in the tournament with 606 - and this is missing a game due to injury. This has seen Shakib back in the top 5 again after improving his overall score for the year by a stonking 1286 points - this is more than Callum Ferguson has scored in the year as a whole. He will be a huge loss to the tournament. The second player we are saying goodbye to will not be missed as it seems like he never really turned up. I have written a few times this year how Rashid Khan's figures are way down on what they were last year in all formats of the game. This has been highlighted by his lack of potency in this tournament. Afghanistan have been poor and, despite pushing some teams close, are deserved wooden spoon holders. One thing that the Afghanistan team rely on is bags of wickets from their mystery spinner, however his best figures for the tournament were his 2/17 against Sri Lanka. He finishes the World Cup with just six wickets - the same as similarly under achieving Kuldeep Yadav. This poor for, has seen Rashid pull off a 'reverse Shakib'. He started the tournament in second with 2109 but has gained only 395 points in his nine games - a third of what Shakib managed. He is now only just clinging on to his place in the top ten with the still active duo of Jos Buttler and Kane Williamson breathing down his neck. Somewhere in the middle of these two players sits Shai Hope who has blown hot and cold in this tournament. The young West Indian has scored big but slow and has been forced into playing the anchor man to often after his big hitting colleagues have hit out. His stock has risen in this tournament but his place in the overall table hasn't. He finishes in 15th - only one place higher than he started but has 695 extra points. These players will have something of a break from tournament cricket for a while until the CPL kicks off - a tournament I see them all competing in. Internationally, Hope has a home series against India but Afghanistan and Bangladesh have nothing lined up until November. With this period of inactivity on the horizon it could be all change again.
Is there justice in this world? If you are Simon Harmer possibly not. The Essex man's figures with the ball this week were simply extraordinary. The big scoring South African has been taking bags and bags of wickets again this year and has muscled his way back into the top five ready for a Summer push to regain his top spot position from Glenn Maxwell. This week his figures of 1/42 and 4/35 against Nottinghamshire look unspectacular but if you scrape the surface - or click on the scorecard - you see a whole different picture. In Nottinghamshire's second dig, Harmer bowled 40 overs, 24 of which were maidens. Of those other 16 overs Harmer only leaked 35 runs leaving him with an economy of 0.87. An economy that low is phenomenal - however he still only gets the thirty points for having an economy rate under four. The same points as Morne Morkel got for his 3.66 off 21 overs against Yorkshire. The same points as Jeetan Patel got for his 1-135 in 43.1 overs against Kent. We abolished the rule of awarding 5 points for a maiden last year as it doubly rewarded bowlers and with this rule in place Harmer would have got a further 120 points - I'm not sure if anyone would begrudge him that. As it stands his 200 points sees him finish fourth for the week but, due to the Shakib effect, he moves down in the overall table into fifth position. Even more galling for some once in a lifetime figures.
Week
Rohit Sharma - 467
Jonny Bairstow-317
Shakib Al Hasan - 260
Simon Harmer - 200
Virat Kohli- 186
Ben Stokes - 180
Jack Leach - 175
Duanne Olivier - 152
Morne Morkel - 140
Callum Ferguson - 139
Shakib Al Hasan - 122
Jos Buttler - 121
Joe Root - 118
Jeetan Patel - 99
Kuldeep Yadav - 50
Rashid Khan - 49
Kane Williamson - 47
Glenn Maxwell - 33
Mohammad Abbas - dnp
Joe Burns - dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Shreyas Iyer - dnp
Wayne Parnell - dnp
Abdur Razzak - dnp
Overall
Glenn Maxwell - 3773
Jeetan Patel - 3115
Joe Root- 2995
Shakib Al Hasan - 2990
Simon Harmer - 2960
Jonny Bairstow - 2875
Ben Stokes - 2673
Rohit Sharma - 2597
Virat Kohli- 2566
Rashid Khan - 2504
Jos Buttler - 2350
Kane Williamson - 2267
Duanne Olivier - 2004
Shreyas Iyer - 1887
Shai Hope - 1861
Morne Morkel - 1850
Wayne Parnell - 1753
Mohammad Abbas - 1420
Kuldeep Yadav - 1402
Callum Ferguson - 1219
Jack Leach - 1119
Shubman Gill - 1039
Abdur Razzak- 898
Joe Burns - 709
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