Marnus Labuschagne's performance in the first innings of his Test match against New Zealand was very obviously going to make him Cricketer of the Week. Even as I was writing last week's post, it was already very clear that his 215 in the first innings was going to knock some of the early T20 leaders out the park. However his monumental first innings score was only half the tale - literally. His 59 in the second innings boosted his score and whilst his part time bowling yielded no wickets it allowed the South African born Australian to pick up 60 points for his economy. When all this is totted up it reaches a huge total of 404. As a rule of thumb, 400 is my normal barometer for the threshold between a great week and an exceptional one. In the whole of 2019 there were just six instances of players breaching the 400 point mark (Maxwell, Sharma, Harmer, Khan, Parnell and Iyer) and for Labuschagne to do so in just his first outing on the list is something very special. In fact his 404 for the week is the second highest debut Week in the history of The Cricket List; trailing Sunil Narine's 487 from 2018. The question now is whether Labuschagne can do an 'inverse Jason Roy' and be rewarded for his Test performances with a call up to the ODI side. He averaged a mere 17.57 in last year's Royal London One Day Cup with Glamorgan - however it is becoming increasingly clear that the young man is in phenomenal touch so would be worth a crack.
Ben Stokes had another one of those headline grabbing weeks this week. Stokes is regularly having to be relied on for getting England out of holes and whilst this makes great viewing and continues to build up the legend of the Durham all rounder it does rather mask the underlining issues in the England set up. His 91 vs New Zealand, that 135* at Headingley, the century against Lords, the 84* in the World Cup final are all great moments in sporting history and, dizzyingly, all came within the last nine months but are remarkable for the fact that they inspired an insipid England team to actually muster themselves to try something a little more three dimensional. A Ben Stokes-less universe is not one worth thinking about. However we do not need to worry about that because his all round prowess is firmly rooted in the English set up - and he was the true all rounder this week. From his haul of 119 runs, those three wickets to seal the game and becoming the first England fielder to take five catches in a single Test innings, Stokes didn't so much make his mark on this Test but branded his imprint into it's flesh. He slots straight into second position on the overall List, his highest ever finish to a week. England will hope not to rely so heavily on him in the next two Tests however he will be challenging for top spot in the form he is in.
We are used to seeing Glenn Maxwell near the top of both the weekly list and our overall list. This week he has dropped a place (!) and is third overall and third for the week - however his total of 262 points from two BBL games includes 142 runs with both outings including strike rates over 150 and has seen him one of two players to cling on to their top five positions alongside Martin Guptill. The frightening thing for everyone on this list is that Maxwell, the number one Cricketer on our overall list for 42 weeks in 2018, has said that after a sabbatical away from the game he feels he can come back improved. Improved! A genuinely startling proposition. He is currently second to Marcus Stoinis in terms of runs scored in this year's BBL and is also offering something with the ball with, the fifteenth lowest economy of all bowlers - arguably the highest allrounder on the list dependant on your definition of all rounders. Maxwell has three games in the next week. Stokes, who is just three points ahead of the Australian, will not have finished the third Test by next weekend whilst Labuschagne's ODI inclusion is questionable so we may see Maxwell back at number one by next week.
Week
Marnus Labuschagne- 404
Ben Stokes - 379
Glenn Maxwell - 262
Joe Root - 206
David Warner - 186
Tom Banton - 158
Lewis Gregory - 131
Virat Kohli- 126
Keshav Maharaj - 126
Steve Smith - 83
Mohammad Nabi - 72
Martin Guptill- 62
Shubman Gill - 27
Travis Head - 10
Aaron Finch - 10
Peter Handscomb - 3
Kyle Abbott - dnp
Colin Ackermann - dnp
Babar Azam - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Jason Holder - dnp
Rohit Sharma - dnp
Overall
Marnus Labuschagne - 404
Ben Stokes - 379
Glenn Maxwell - 373
Martin Guptill - 227
Joe Root - 206
Lewis Gregory - 206
David Warner - 186
Mohammad Nabi - 170
Tom Banton - 158
Virat Kohli - 126
Keshav Maharaj - 126
Steve Smith - 83
Aaron Finch - 74
Peter Handscomb - 37
Shubman Gill - 27
Travis Head - 10
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