The world has reverted back to normality. Nothing screams status quo more than County Championship teams marching out for a day's toil. It exposes the parochial underbelly of our game whilst also providing blinding performances. This week we spotlight two South African Kolpak players; one a returning champion of our List, the other making his bow. It is the newbie who runs out Cricketer of the Week in his debut week. Colin Ackermann had his leadership skills put to the Test in the opening fixture of the Bob Willis Trophy. After falling six runs short of a century in the first innings, Ackermann's side had under a session left on Day Four with a target of 150. This saw Leicestershire turn the game into a T20 knockabout. This was something the new captain felt very comfortable with. His 73 from 41 balls was a match winning knock for the George born all-rounder. It is only the second time we have seen a player score 30 bonus points for Strike Rate in a County game. Wayne Parnell achieved a similar feat in similar circumstances last August for Worcestershire. Ackermann's haul of 337 points is the fourth highest total of the year and saves him the indignity of ever having the bottom spot. That dubious honour goes to Simon Harmer - a position he is not familiar with. The Essex man was the list topper in year one and finished 2019 in second spot. With these two Kolpaks having at least another four games in this tournament, we should expect to see them fly up the table over the next month.
How definitely can we say that one decent innings can change a career? We are replete with such Sliding Doors moments in sport and had two such incidents in the last week. Jos Buttler, a feature on our List for the last two year, has bought himself more time in the England set up with his knock against Pakistan. In the shorter form of the game, Tom Banton may have done the selfsame thing against Ireland. There is a real force of will behind Banton in the English game. I can't think of a player in recent history that the England setup have been so staunchly set on making it. Banton's name must be mud at Dawid Malan's house. Is this faith starting to pay off though? Across the five games - both warm-up and ODI - he has averaged 17.2 - this includes the game where he got three runs batting for both sides. The final ODI score of 58, whilst very much third fiddle on the night was a promising reminder of his ability.
That performance was by far the most competent he has looked in 2020. This being said, his 98 points was the lowest of the six active players from this week. After making a name for himself in last year's T20 Blast, he looked underwhelming in the BBL and the PSL. He now joins up with Somerset for the Bob Willis Trophy where both he and the powers that be, hope he keeps his foot on the pedal. He moves up to 12th on the overall list and overtakes the Sleeping giants of David Warner and Virat Kohli.
Not to diminish the achievements of the newest member of our top five...but Babar Azam rather underwhelmed for Pakistan in the First Test. Huge things were expected of the Pakistani superstar and things looked good on the first day. Azam had the world coo-ing with delight at his skilfully executed 69. He was one of the best players in the world! Who was he pushing out of the batting top four? Was he better than a Root? Was he better than Smith? The world was being smashed by his willow. Then on Day Two he was out without getting a run and then got five in the second innings. Azam is an outstanding player and he has just displaced Smith in our top five on the List. However he needs to continue to score big and score consistently to be one of the world's best. In that respect I would bracket him with Root. Undoubtedly a great talent but slightly too flighty right now to speak of him in such exulted terms. He does have the highest average of any player in the top ten most runs in the World Test Championship, so runs are unlikely to be eluded for too long. His 86.12 is slightly better than fellow List member Marnus Labuschagne's 83.26. It is guaranteed that the Lahorian will continue to move up our List. He is now 172 points behind Keshav Maharaj and 229 off Martin Guptill. It is very likely he will be in our top three before the end of this series.
Week
Colin Ackermann- 337
Simon Harmer - 249
Joe Root- 109
Babar Azam - 104
Ben Stokes - 99
Tom Banton - 98
Kyle Abbott - dnp
Aaron Finch - dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Lewis Gregory - dnp
Martin Guptill- dnp
Peter Handscomb - dnp
Jason Holder - dnp
Virat Kohli- dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Mohammad Nabi- dnp
Rohit Sharma- dnp
Steve Smith - dnp
David Warner - dnp
Overall
Ben Stokes - 2204
Joe Root - 1430
Martin Guptill - 1243
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Babar Azam - 1165
Steve Smith - 1109
Jason Holder- 1069
Marnus Labuschagne - 1000
Aaron Finch - 980
Lewis Gregory - 938
Travis Head - 901
Tom Banton - 867
David Warner - 821
Virat Kohli - 787
Shubman Gill - 752
Mohammad Nabi - 701
Glenn Maxwell - 650
Rohit Sharma - 471
Peter Handscomb - 383
Colin Ackermann - -337
Simon Harmer - 249
How definitely can we say that one decent innings can change a career? We are replete with such Sliding Doors moments in sport and had two such incidents in the last week. Jos Buttler, a feature on our List for the last two year, has bought himself more time in the England set up with his knock against Pakistan. In the shorter form of the game, Tom Banton may have done the selfsame thing against Ireland. There is a real force of will behind Banton in the English game. I can't think of a player in recent history that the England setup have been so staunchly set on making it. Banton's name must be mud at Dawid Malan's house. Is this faith starting to pay off though? Across the five games - both warm-up and ODI - he has averaged 17.2 - this includes the game where he got three runs batting for both sides. The final ODI score of 58, whilst very much third fiddle on the night was a promising reminder of his ability.
That performance was by far the most competent he has looked in 2020. This being said, his 98 points was the lowest of the six active players from this week. After making a name for himself in last year's T20 Blast, he looked underwhelming in the BBL and the PSL. He now joins up with Somerset for the Bob Willis Trophy where both he and the powers that be, hope he keeps his foot on the pedal. He moves up to 12th on the overall list and overtakes the Sleeping giants of David Warner and Virat Kohli.
Not to diminish the achievements of the newest member of our top five...but Babar Azam rather underwhelmed for Pakistan in the First Test. Huge things were expected of the Pakistani superstar and things looked good on the first day. Azam had the world coo-ing with delight at his skilfully executed 69. He was one of the best players in the world! Who was he pushing out of the batting top four? Was he better than a Root? Was he better than Smith? The world was being smashed by his willow. Then on Day Two he was out without getting a run and then got five in the second innings. Azam is an outstanding player and he has just displaced Smith in our top five on the List. However he needs to continue to score big and score consistently to be one of the world's best. In that respect I would bracket him with Root. Undoubtedly a great talent but slightly too flighty right now to speak of him in such exulted terms. He does have the highest average of any player in the top ten most runs in the World Test Championship, so runs are unlikely to be eluded for too long. His 86.12 is slightly better than fellow List member Marnus Labuschagne's 83.26. It is guaranteed that the Lahorian will continue to move up our List. He is now 172 points behind Keshav Maharaj and 229 off Martin Guptill. It is very likely he will be in our top three before the end of this series.
Week
Colin Ackermann- 337
Simon Harmer - 249
Joe Root- 109
Babar Azam - 104
Ben Stokes - 99
Tom Banton - 98
Kyle Abbott - dnp
Aaron Finch - dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Lewis Gregory - dnp
Martin Guptill- dnp
Peter Handscomb - dnp
Jason Holder - dnp
Virat Kohli- dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Mohammad Nabi- dnp
Rohit Sharma- dnp
Steve Smith - dnp
David Warner - dnp
Overall
Ben Stokes - 2204
Joe Root - 1430
Martin Guptill - 1243
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Babar Azam - 1165
Steve Smith - 1109
Jason Holder- 1069
Marnus Labuschagne - 1000
Aaron Finch - 980
Lewis Gregory - 938
Travis Head - 901
Tom Banton - 867
David Warner - 821
Virat Kohli - 787
Shubman Gill - 752
Mohammad Nabi - 701
Glenn Maxwell - 650
Rohit Sharma - 471
Peter Handscomb - 383
Colin Ackermann - -337
Simon Harmer - 249
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