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
No comments:
Post a Comment