Rohit Sharma - The Best Cricketer of the Week

Another cursory post today as I am writing this looking over the Caribbean Sea on my honeymoon. Normal service will resume next week. 

The only mover on the overall table comes from Cricketer of the Week, Rohit Sharma who finally reels in Jonny Bairstow to take ninth place. 

Week

Rohit Sharma - 282
Glenn Maxwell - 160
Callum Ferguson - 121 
Joe Burns - 81
Kane Williamson - 26
Virat Kohli- 12 

Mohammad Abbas - dnp 
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp 
Jonny Bairstow - dnp 
Jos Buttler - dnp 
Shubman Gill - dnp 
Simon Harmer - dnp 
Shai Hope - dnp
Shreyas Iyer - dnp 
Rashid Khan - dnp 
Jack Leach - dnp 
Morne Morkel - dnp 
Duanne Olivier - dnp 
Wayne Parnell - dnp 
Jeetan Patel - dnp 
Abdur Razzak - dnp 
Joe Root - dnp 
Ben Stokes - dnp 
Kuldeep Yadav - dnp 

Overall 

Glenn Maxwell - 5580
Simon Harmer - 4974
Jeetan Patel - 4385
Virat Kohli- 3891
Shakib Al Hasan -3862
Rashid Khan - 3781
Joe Root- 3769
Ben Stokes - 3706
Rohit Sharma - 3593
Jonny Bairstow - 3429
Shreyas Iyer - 3000
Duanne Olivier - 2852
Jos Buttler - 2793
Wayne Parnell - 2743 
Kane Williamson - 2524
Morne Morkel - 2438
Jack Leach - 2378
Shai Hope - 2128
Shubman Gill - 2102
Callum Ferguson - 2014
Mohammad Abbas - 1857
Kuldeep Yadav - 1694
Joe Burns - 1324
Abdur Razzak- 1157

Abdur Razzak - The Best Cricketer of the Week

Very perfunctory blog today as I kinda got married yesterday but the bare bones are that Abdur Razzak won despite being the bottom most player in our list and not playing since April.

The other movers on the table were:

Moved up

Virat Kohli
Rashid Khan
Shai Hope

Moved down

Shakib Al Hasan
Joe Root
Ben Stokes
Shubman Gill

Week

Abdur Razzak - 329
Virat Kohli - 314
Rashid Khan - 162
Glenn Maxwell - 153
Joe Burns - 115
Shreyas Iyer - 96
Shai Hope - 38
Rohit Sharma - 33
Shakib Al Hasan - 25

Mohammad Abbas - dnp
Jonny Bairstow - dnp
Jos Buttler - dnp
Callum Ferguson- dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Jack Leach - dnp
Morne Morkel - dnp
Duanne Olivier - dnp
Wayne Parnell - dnp
Jeetan Patel - dnp
Joe Root - dnp
Ben Stokes - dnp
Kane Williamson - dnp
Kuldeep Yadav - dnp

Overall

Glenn Maxwell - 5420
Simon Harmer - 4974
Jeetan Patel - 4385
Virat Kohli- 3879
Shakib Al Hasan -3862
Rashid Khan - 3781
Joe Root- 3769
Ben Stokes - 3706
Jonny Bairstow - 3429
Rohit Sharma - 3311
Shreyas Iyer - 3000
Duanne Olivier - 2852
Jos Buttler - 2793
Wayne Parnell - 2743
Kane Williamson - 2498
Morne Morkel - 2438
Jack Leach - 2378
Shai Hope - 2128
Shubman Gill - 2102
Callum Ferguson - 1893
Mohammad Abbas - 1857
Kuldeep Yadav - 1694
Joe Burns - 1243
Abdur Razzak- 1157

Rohit Sharma - The Best Cricketer of the Week

This is the time of year where our list of weekly high achievers begins to shorter as a handful of teams dominate. This week we only have six point scoring compatriots from four different teams - however Rohit Sharma's achievement in the First Test against South Africa would have been enough to see him named Cricketer of the Week in most normal weeks. His total of 383 is his second highest total of the year and the fact that it came in the Test arena will please him greatly. In Week 27, Rohit got 467 for his three centuries in a week during the World Cup but I wonder if this means more to him. Long placed in the obscure category of players who dominate in the white ball format but fail to transfer to the longest form of the game, Rohit has now allowed himself the luxury of a rather lush pile of laurels that he can rest upon allowing him to go ahead and get an extended run in the team. He even did so with the customary big hitting style he has become known for - breaking the record for most sixes in a Test Match. What is interesting is that, despite his massive score, he fails to make any progress in the overall table; instead narrowing the gap between him and ninth placed Jonny Bairstow to 162 runs. This is a pattern that we see all the way across the field. Second placed Shai Hope scored 114 points but stays stuck behind Shubman Gill in 19th whilst Virat Kohli's 71 only brings him to within 54 of Rashid Khan despite his poor Week. If a score of 383 can't see you move up the rankings, perhaps our overall table won't look too different on December 31st as is does today.

In fact only one player did move up this week and that is the man who has finished second in our weekly table for two weeks in a row - Shreyas Iyer. His 108 for the week means that in his 5 games since the start of the Vijay Hazare Trophy he has scored 371 - an average of 74.2 per game. With the Indian domestic season only just grinding into gear, it is not behind the realms of possibility that the Mumbai man will continue his trajectory up the table. He will also see quite a lot of national action over the closing months of the year with three T20s against Bangladesh in November and a further three against West Indies. With Iyer now established as an Indian White Ball player, we may find that Shastri may want to try him in the Test team to solve his problem at number four. There are many options for this position in the team with Rishabh Pant, fellow list member Shubman Gill, Manish Pandey and even KL Rahul being mentioned for the spot but on current form it is impossible that before the end of the year, Iyer will play all three formats of the game for his nation.

Assuming you know what kind of form that Rashid Khan will show in any given week is very difficult this year. After a largely disappointing 2019, Rashid joined up with his national team in September for a run of very rich form that saw him play an instrumental role in his side's Test victory over Bangladesh. Since the first Tour game in Bangladesh on the 1st of September, Rashid has bagged 784 points and risen from 10th place to 7th. So with him back to his best hearing he was joining up with his domestic T20 franchise, Band-e-Amir, would have had many expecting the points to come flowing in this week. From his two games he got the princely yield of 6 points with them all coming off the bat. Nothing with the ball. No fielding points. No nothing. There are many caveats to this. He only bowled five overs, 4 versus Kabul and a solitary one against Mis Ainak. However in the game where he bowled the full allocation he went for 45 runs and ended up with an economy of 11.25. The single over makes me think that Rashid is protecting himself for future performances and not for one minute would I expect him to be operating in fifth gear for the lofty competition that is the Shpageeza Cricket League but 6 points from two games is poor for anyone, let alone the best player in his nation on his own turf.

Week

Rohit Sharma - 383
Shai Hope - 114
Shreyas Iyer - 108
Virat Kohli - 71
Shakib Al Hasan - 23
Rashid Khan - 6

Mohammad Abbas - dnp
Jonny Bairstow - dnp
Joe Burns - dnp
Jos Buttler - dnp
Callum Ferguson - dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Jack Leach - dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Morne Morkel - dnp
Duanne Olivier - dnp
Wayne Parnell - dnp
Jeetan Patel - dnp
Abdur Razzak - dnp
Joe Root - dnp
Ben Stokes - dnp
Kane Williamson - dnp
Kuldeep Yadav - dnp

Overall

Glenn Maxwell - 5267
Simon Harmer - 4974
Jeetan Patel - 4385
Shakib Al Hasan -3837
Joe Root- 3769
Ben Stokes - 3706
Rashid Khan - 3619
Virat Kohli- 3565
Jonny Bairstow - 3429
Rohit Sharma - 3267
Shreyas Iyer - 2904
Duanne Olivier - 2852
Jos Buttler - 2793
Wayne Parnell - 2743
Kane Williamson - 2498
Morne Morkel - 2438
Jack Leach - 2378
Shubman Gill - 2102
Shai Hope - 2090
Callum Ferguson - 1893
Mohammad Abbas - 1857
Kuldeep Yadav - 1694
Joe Burns - 1128
Abdur Razzak- 898

Shakib Al Hasan - The Best Cricketer of the Week

So.....we can't always be right and we can't always predict the circuitous paths that some of our Cricketers take around the world. Last week cricket for Shakib Al Hassan looked unlikely for the foreseeable future. He was not part of the MSL and his next game for Bangladesh was in November. A well earned rest was on the cards. Except for the fact that the Bangladesh skipper already had his bags packed for the exotic climes of the Caribbean to join up with Barbados. As soon as he touched down he was in action against St Kitts and Nevis and from there he didn't look back, ending the week with four wickets, 63 runs and 273 points as well as a second Cricketer of the Week accolade for 2019. It is a well timed burst of points as a vast majority of the players in our list were inactive this week. Shakib has taken advantage of this to muscle his way up the table and find himself in the heady position of fourth once again. Not bad at all for a player who was in eighth spot just a month ago, however a profitable September saw him pick up 824 points and puts him back in the mix once more.

There is a stage of every Cricketers life where they have outgrown their domestic teams and competitions but are not yet natural selections for their national team. This is the case for Shreyas Iyer. Indian cricket always has a number of cabs bustling to be the next one to leave the rank however Iyer has his nose ahead of the rest with some impressive short form performances which have encouraged Ravi Shastri to state that he will give the young Mumbai batsman an extended run in the ODI team. This being said, the times when Iyer has impressed the most has been when he is dominating for Mumbai. His sole Cricketer of the Week accolade came in February where he scored 296 runs across three games in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. This week, whilst not as prolific, has been similar. Iyer completed two fifty over games in the Vijay Hazare Trophy accruing two half centuries, both at strike rates over 80 and turning his hand to some bowling to boost his overall total. His 263 points is his highest weekly total since Week 14. This sees him finish second for the week and forces him above Jos Buttler and Duanne Olivier into eleventh position. A good domestic season could see the Mumbai captain end up in the top ten for 2019.

The Hundred has proved rather controversial from the outset but, for those players we want to take forward into the 2020 list, it is something we will have to consider. We have eight players who have featured in both our 2018 and 2019 lists of the best Cricketers in the world: Simon Harmer, Jeetan Patel, Rashid Khan, Virat Kohli, Shakib Al Hasan, Kane Williamson Jos Buttler and Joe Root. With one exception these players are definite for the tournament. Root has already signed on for the Trent Bridge team whilst Jos Buttler will represent Manchester. Harmer and Patel are very likely to be players hotly contested in the draft with Patel likely to be selected for the Birmingham side that is aligned with Warwickshire. Rashid Khan, Shakib and Williamson have already signed on for the draft and it is inconceivable they wouldn't get selected. The only question mark is on the selection of Virat Kohli. The Indian captain has been one of the more vocal international critics of the tournament. If you add this to the BCCIs reluctance to let any Indian players participate in any short form tournament outside the IPL then it looks like Virat may have to sit this one out. Other players that will feature in the draft that have been part of our list at some point or another include: Steve Smith, David Warmer, Quinton De Kock and Aaron Finch whilst Stokes has already signed for the Northern team, Bairstow for the Welsh team and 2018 alum Jofra Archa will represent the Southern Team. Whether we like it or not, the selection of 2020 players will need to bear this competition in mind.

Week

Shakib Al Hasan - 273
Shreyas Iyer - 263
Glenn Maxwell - 90
Mohammad Abbas - 70
Callum Ferguson - 58
Joe Burns - 21
Rohit Sharma - 10

Jonny Bairstow - dnp
Jos Buttler - dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Shai Hope - dnp
Rashid Khan - dnp
Virat Kohli - dnp
Jack Leach - dnp
Morne Morkel - dnp
Duanne Olivier - dnp
Jeetan Patel - dnp
Wayne Parnell - dnp
Abdur Razzak - dnp
Joe Root - dnp
Ben Stokes - dnp
Kane Williamson - dnp
Kuldeep Yadav - dnp

Overall

Glenn Maxwell - 5267
Simon Harmer - 4974
Jeetan Patel - 4385
Shakib Al Hasan -3814
Joe Root- 3769
Ben Stokes - 3706
Rashid Khan - 3613
Virat Kohli- 3494
Jonny Bairstow - 3429
Rohit Sharma - 2884
Duanne Olivier - 2852
Shreyas Iyer - 2796
Jos Buttler - 2793
Wayne Parnell - 2743
Kane Williamson - 2498
Morne Morkel - 2438
Jack Leach - 2378
Shubman Gill - 2102
Shai Hope - 1976
Callum Ferguson - 1893
Mohammad Abbas - 1857
Kuldeep Yadav - 1694
Joe Burns - 1128
Abdur Razzak- 898