Things in the world of cricket (and the world of the world) have taken a turn for the dystopian in the last 48 hours - but, blissfully unaware of what was to come, our list of Cricketers were as active as they have ever been in 2020. They were pehapa making up for the paucity of cricket we may see for as long a month - this could have a huge bearing on our list for the year. One player who has benefited from the Corona cancellation of cricket is Joe Root. It has long been established that Joe Root absolutely bloody loves a pre series warm up match; an opportunity to annihilate green bowlers and show what he can do with the ball against green batsmen. This time round he has had the opportunity to do the pre-tour warm-up part without having the inconvenience of the actual tour part. In his two matches this week against a Sri Lanka Cricket XI and a Sri Lanka Board President's XI he scored a combined 180 runs - and that was with the latter match curtailed to allow England to hot foot it home. The 280 points accrued this week was Root's highest total for the week since the tour of New Zealand and his last Cricketer of the Week accolade in December last year. It sees him move his way back into the top five - joint in fourth place with Steve Smith. Nobody knows when Root may play again - it could very well be the University game against Leeds Bradford MCCU on the 2nd of April - or it could be in the burnt out wreckage of a church against a rampaging pack of motorbike riding ruffians from the nearest village for the prize of drinking water and a four pack of Andrex. In more frivolous news Root becomes the first cricketer to win Cricketer of the Week in all three years we have been doing this.
Lower down the table there were big lurches of points for two Australians - one playing domestically and another internationally. Marnus Labuschagne's position on the overall list has been going up and down like the supply of dried pasta over the last few months. Debuting in first position, he spent January in first or second before plummeting to the bottom of the top ten throughout February. Last week saw him down to tenth - his lowest position of the year. He then proceeded to score a century against South Africa and a half century against New Zealand to score 264 points, finish second for the week and move up to 6th place for the year. Labuschagne will be annoyed that the series against New Zealand went from being an affair to be played behind closed doors to cancelled as he was genuinely cementing his place in a very competitive middle order for Australia. He is now second to Ian Chappell for most runs for Australia after 6 ODIs. Another player that did well this week was a player that Labuschagne is gradually freezing out of the international scene - Travis Head. Head has been lurching up the table playing Sheffield Shield cricket and put on a truly exceptional all round performance for South Australia against Victoria this week comprising 76 runs, a wicket and four contributions in the field. His yield of 220 points sees him move into the top ten for the year. Unlike a lot of other players in this list, there is a very real possibility that these two players may feature next week....against each other. As I write there is to be no impact on the final round of Sheffield Shield fixtures and with South Australia playing Queensland it might be very interesting to see these two matched up against each other.
Another player who will be hoping to take advantage of the cessation of other forms of cricket is Babar Azam who this week moved up for the fourth week out of the last five to find himself creep into the top ten. The rest of the PSL is to be played behind closed doors and, as yet, there is no official cancellation or postponement of the Pakistan v Bangladesh ODI series. Azam has been off the pace for a while but is starting to get in a more recognisable vein of form - averaging 59 in his last three PSL games and easing past Ben Dunk to become the top scorer in the tournament with 294. Karachi are now second and are likely to progress to the knock out stages of the competition so further point for Azam seem likely - and if you look further up the table he could really do a job on some of those inactive players. A wall of Australian players stand between him and the top 5, with David Warner 18 points away in 9th and Smith 306 points away in joint fourth. If Azam makes hay while the sun is clouded over in a pestilential smog he could manage to leap up the table once more.
Week
Joe Root - 280
Marnus Labuschagne- 260
Travis Head - 220
Babar Azam - 187
Aaron Finch - 112
Mohammad Nabi- 101
David Warner - 101
Ben Stokes - 66
Tom Banton - 50
Martin Guptill- 50
Steve Smith - 44
Peter Handscomb- 36
Keshav Maharaj- 20
Lewis Gregory - 18
Kyle Abbot - dnp
Colin Ackermann- dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Jason Holder - dnp
Virat Kohli - dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Rohit Sharma- dnp
Overall
Martin Guptill - 1243
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Ben Stokes - 1128
Joe Root - 1109
Steve Smith - 1109
Marnus Labuschagne - 1000
Aaron Finch - 980
Travis Head - 901
David Warner - 821
Babar Azam - 803
Virat Kohli - 787
Lewis Gregory - 759
Shubman Gill - 752
Mohammad Nabi - 701
Glenn Maxwell - 650
Tom Banton - 603
Rohit Sharma - 471
Peter Handscomb - 383
Jason Holder- 225
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