Shubman Gill - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Some might say that Shubman Gill has snatched Cricketer of the Week worthier performances. Stokes scored the second highest points total of the IPL against Punjab to get 150 points. Warner got the third highest against Delhi earlier in the week. Critics (and Gill has a lot of them) will also point to the fact that Gill is one of only two players to have played twice this week. And yet, they may say, he still got the third lowest total for a Cricketer of the Week in the history of us doing this. However for all the stick that Gill has been getting in this tournament he has been one of the most consistent players. His average points per game speaks to that. Gill's current average is 54.15 - the fourth highest overall and third for players that have featured in every game. Averages don't tell the full story though. One must look at individual performances. If you split all performances by our list members in this year's IPL into thirds you automatically get a series of strong performances (61 points or more), poor performances (18 points or fewer) and average performances. When you compare the five players that have played in all fixtures (Gill, Kohli, Maxwell, Smith and Warner), Gill is joint lowest for poor performances. His 7 points against Mumbai and 1 against Bangalore represent his low water mark. The main criticism of Gill is his pedestrian strike rate in the Powerplay. This is not borne out in comparison to our Listed cricketers. Overall he has the second most Strike Rate points of any of ten IPL players. 170 of his 704 points in the competition come from Strike Rate - only David Warner with 190 has higher. There have only been four games out of the thirteen Gill has played where he hasn't picked up points for Strike Rate . Two of those were due to him not collecting the 20 runs he needed to qualify. Gill's week has been buoyed up by inclusion in India's Test squad for the eagerly anticipated tour of Australia. The longest format suits Gill better as it is his more natural style of play. If can jump 6 places in the IPL - a tournament for which he is not well suited - who knows what he can achieve in the longest form.

Another strong IPL performance this week came from David Warner. Last week I called Warner Mr Consistent; suggesting that he wasn't blowing the roof off of innings in the way that he is capable. He then immediately got the fourth highest match point total of the IPL with 136 against Delhi. This sees him move up to sixth place - a mere 36 points off Simon Harmer and a place in the top five. That quickfire 66, coupled with Kohli's disappointing score of 9 against Mumbai, now sees the Hyderabad captain almost home and hosed in terms of overall points. The three contenders are Warner with 792 points, Gill with 704 and Kohli now lagging behind with 658. There are obviously huge question marks around progression for Hyderabad which may hold Warner back. This being said, Warner's superior average points per game of 66 would suggest to me that regardless of progression he is a force to be reckon with. Gill has one more game before the knock outs. He would have to score way above his average to eat into the 88 point deficit. Despite the fact that Kohli now has a huge 134 point gulf to fill, Bangalore are just about guaranteed to progress. This means that Kohli can expect to bank 164 points - working on his average of 54.83. This means that, going in to the knockouts, we can forecast Wee Davey to be 156 points ahead of Kohli - but Virat has that extra game. So....in short....who knows. Exciting eh?

Leaving the glitz of the IPL behind we've seen antipodean cricket kick into life over the last fortnight. One person who'll benefit from this is Martin Guptill. There's a man who needs to be looking on the bright side of life. If any of our Cricketers had the right to feel aggrieved about cricket's suspension then Guptill is the one with the best claim. When the world stopped, the New Zealander had enjoyed a three week stretch as the top of our overall list. He was 67 points ahead of Keshav Maharaj and had 115 on Ben Stokes in third. And then nothing...until July when cricket restarted...in England. No opportunity to play County Championship cricket for Martin who was stuck in New Zealand. Meanwhile Stokes went from strength to strength. The England allrounder won the first three Cricketers of the Week after the resumption. When Guptill scored his first points in the Plunket Shield last week he was the third to last Cricketer to restart after lockdown. Only Peter Handscomb and Maharaj still waiting it out. Between him turning out for New Zealand in Sydney in March and last week's Auckland game his 115 point lead on Stokes turned into a 1052 point deficit. Rather than top spot, the New Zealander found himself in 15th. Not to be dissuaded though, he has gone back to doing what he does best - scoring points. He has finished fourth in terms of weekly points for the last two weeks and has moved back up to thirteenth place. With New Zealand seemingly a safe haven from the pandemic, how good could Guptill's Summer get?

Week


Shubman Gill - 153
Ben Stokes- 150
David Warner - 136
Martin Guptill- 88
Steve Smith - 61
Glenn Maxwell - 26
Jason Holder - 20
Babar Azam- 19
Virat Kohli - 9


Kyle Abbott - dnp
Colin Ackermann- dnp
Tom Banton- dnp
Aaron Finch - dnp
Lewis Gregory- dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Peter Handscomb- dnp
Travis Head- dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Mohammad Nabi - dnp
Joe Root- dnp
Rohit Sharma- dnp


Overall


Ben Stokes - 2701
Babar Azam - 2319
Joe Root - 2286
Lewis Gregory - 2126
Simon Harmer - 1922
David Warner - 1886
Jason Holder- 1846
Aaron Finch - 1829
Steve Smith - 1667
Marnus Labuschagne - 1594
Glenn Maxwell - 1565
Mohammad Nabi - 1458
Shubman Gill - 1456
Martin Guptill - 1456
Virat Kohli - 1447
Colin Ackermann - 1435
Travis Head - 1249
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Tom Banton - 1066
Rohit Sharma - 913
Peter Handscomb - 383

Ben Stokes - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Remember when Ben Stokes was having a bad IPL? If I had done this post yesterday as I has planned he still would have been. He would have had 76 points - sandwiching him between Shubman Gill and Steve Smith. A trio of misfiring IPL batsmen. And then he fired. His century for Rajasthan yesterday yielded him 187 points . This eclipses the highest IPL total so far this year - Virat Kohli's 140 against Chennai). T20 is Stokes' least effective format - however when he pulls it out the fire it produces moments that are seared into your memory. It is odd how one performance can turn the course of a tournament. Before yesterday's game Stokes averaged 32 points a game with only Glenn Maxwell (19.21) and Tom Banton (9) below him. After the game his average was 57.83 with only Kohli (59), David Warner (59.64) and Jason Holder (67.5) above him. In the blink of an eye Stokes has eclipsed some of our other IPL contributors in exactly half the time. Maxwell's season has been a poor one. The Punjab allrounder has only one score in the top half of all individual contributions (31 points or more). It has taken Stokes six games to overhaul Maxwell's eleven game total of 212 points. Stokes also has 115 more runs and 40 more points for Strike Rate than the Aussie. It is not just Maxwell who he has overshadowed. He has ten more batting bonus points than Aaron Finch and has more points for fielding than Finch, Kohli and Smith. All of those players have featured in their side from the start. If Stokes had played all games, at his current average, his expected total would be 694 - 38 more than current leader David Warner. What could have been! What has happened, however, is that Stokes has reclaimed his position at the top of the overall list. After a month of playing second fiddle to Joe Root and Babar Azam, Stokes is leading us out as we approach the final two months of the year.

That David Warner is our current IPL points leader might come as a surprise to you. His Hyderabad team have had their worst season in many a year and Warner's performances haven't lit up the tournament. What he has done this year, which has eluded him in year's gone by, is shown consistency. Over the last eleven fixtures, Warner's average points have improved in all but two rounds. Hos tournament high reached 66.43 after his 48 runs against Rajasthan in fixture 7. He now has the second highest average of 59.64 - with only newbie Holder trumping him. There have been 87 individual contributions from our players in this year's IPL - ranging from Stokes 180 yesterday to Glenn Maxwell's 0 against RCB. If we divide these performances into thirds we see a majority of Warner's outings within the top 29. Basically, this means that in seven of his 11 games he has scored 61 points or more. However, if we were to look at scores of more than 100 points (the sign of an outstanding game) there have only been two. This means that 45% of Warner's matches in this year's IPL have been somewhere between 61 and 100 points. Not bad going at all - despite the fact that it's looking like progression to the knockout phase may be unlikely. Warner moves up to eighth - a position he has got no higher than since the third week in January.

In terms of delivering what your national coach asks of you, Travis Head has followed through. At the start of the Sheffield Shield season, Justin Langer sent a message to those on the fringes of national selection; perform well and you'll get in. Usman Khawaja is a man trying to force his way back in whilst Cameron Green is making it hard to be ignored. It's difficult to tell who the incumbent is at the moment but if anyone can claim that title it is Travis Head. It seems an inordinate period of time since Head's second Test century in the Boxing Day Test in 2019 - however there have only been a handful of Tests since then. And yet the South Australian has his critics. Those critics will have to have a rethink after his second week in a row in the top five. His contribution against West Australia was decent - 85 runs plus some points for his part time bowling. That looks paltry compared to his haul of 213 points against Tasmania - all points from the bat. His 171* to save the game showed that he can score big and also grind out a game when needed. He arrived at the crease at 79-2 with his side trailing by more than 200 runs. To succeed under such circumstances is even more impressive. In a week where only four Cricketers moved up in the list, Travis jumped the highest. Overtaking Tom Banton and Keshav Maharaj into 17th. It is worth noting that Banton has played in 18 weeks of this year to reach his current total of 1066. Travis Head's 1249 points have come from just nine weeks. His average points per active week stands at 138.78 - Banton's at 59.22.

Week


Ben Stokes- 256
Travis Head- 213
David Warner - 166
Martin Guptill- 125
Jason Holder- 135
Virat Kohli- 108
Glenn Maxwell - 104
Shubman Gill - 86
Steve Smith- 56
Aaron Finch- 31
Rohit Sharma- 21
Tom Banton - 10


Kyle Abbott - dnp
Colin Ackermann - dnp
Babar Azam- dnp
Lewis Gregory - dnp
Peter Handscomb- dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Mohammad Nabi- dnp
Joe Root- dnp




Overall


Ben Stokes - 2551
Babar Azam - 2300
Joe Root - 2286
Lewis Gregory - 2126
Simon Harmer - 1922
Aaron Finch - 1829
Jason Holder- 1826
David Warner - 1750
Steve Smith - 1606
Marnus Labuschagne - 1594
Glenn Maxwell - 1539
Mohammad Nabi - 1458
Colin Ackermann - 1435
Virat Kohli - 1438
Martin Guptill - 1368
Shubman Gill - 1303
Travis Head - 1249
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Tom Banton - 1066
Rohit Sharma - 913
Peter Handscomb - 383

Babar Azam - The Best Cricketer of the Week

It was Ben Stokes that I prophesied would knock Joe Root off top spot and reclaim his title at the top of the list. This did not come to pass despite the flame-haired allrounder's return to cricket. Instead, we have a brand new name at the very top of the list - that of Babar Azam. Nobody has played more cricket than Azam in 2020. His active weeks stand at 18 out of 40. That is one more than Tom Banton and two more than Lewis Gregory and Aaron Finch - however he would have few better weeks than the last seven days. His form in the National T20 cup for Central Punjab has been nothing short of breath-taking. He has made 325 runs in five games. This is even more impressive when you consider he got a duck in one of them. His average points per game stands at 93. To put this into comparison, Steve Smith registered an average of 104.5 in fixture 2 of the IPL. Apart from that no IPL Cricketer on our list has got within touching distance of that average. This week has improved his overall average points per active week. He now stands at 127.78 - 12th placed out of our 22 players. This indicates that Babar has played an awful lot of decent, if not spectacular, cricket in this most unusual of years. His lead on Stokes is a mere five points so his tenure as the leading Cricketer in the World may be brief in the short term. We many need to consider Babar as a contender. If Stokes were to overtake him before the close of the IPL, Babar has a home series against minnows Zimbabwe to boost his score.

Have faith in Virat Kohli and he will deliver. A poor start to the IPL season and a lowly position in the overall list were cast aside this week to see the Indian captain pick up 324 points from four games. This has seen him shoot up the list from 18th to 14th. His improvement over the last fortnight has been very impressive. Averaging 14 points per game after the first three fixtures, he now averages 60.11 - the highest of any of our IPL contributors. He also has picked up 541 points since the start of the competition - the highest of any of our players. Despite his insipid start his total yield of 351 runs is 67 more than David Warner. He also has 20 more Strike Rate points than Shubman Gill who is second in that particular metric. His 140 points from last Saturday's game against Chennai is the highest score for any of our players. His 140 from 90 runs with a strike rate of 173.07 is worth 20 points more than Rohit Sharma's performance against Kolkata in Match 5. Bangalore are guaranteed another five games and seem likely to progress even further. This means that, working on Kohli's current average, he may be expected to accrue another 301 points before we get to the knockouts. That should be enough to see him into the top ten - a place he has not been for the last thirty weeks.

Happily the Sheffield Shield, unlike most other forms of cricket around the world, has not been effected temporally by Covid. This means that some of our least active players will come to the fore once again. Travis Head had only been active for seven weeks before his game for South Australia this week. Bottom placed Peter Handscomb will be back in action in two weeks time. The biggest beneficiary of antipodean cricket this week was an Aussie who had played more than most. Marnus Labuschagne has featured in 11 weeks of cricket this year - one fewer than the average. This week he provided one of his best performances in Queensland's opening fixture. The mercurial batsmen has a propensity to score big runs and delivered this week with 167 against Tasmania. His part time bowling also helped him chip in 50 points to his total to see him finish third in the weekly table. Labuschagne hadn't played any cricket since Australia's tour of England but finished that chapter of the year in ninth place. He has picked up where he left off there by shooting back up to eight place this week. With the international players featuring in the first four rounds of the Shield, scores like this won't hurt the South African born Aussie one bit.

Week


Babar Azam - 329
Virat Kohli- 324
Marnus Labuschagne- 257
Travis Head- 135
Aaron Finch - 133
Steve Smith - 113
Ben Stokes- 91
David Warner - 87
Shubman Gill - 85
Rohit Sharma- 50
Tom Banton - 8
Glenn Maxwell - 0


Kyle Abbott - dnp
Colin Ackermann- dnp
Lewis Gregory - dnp
Martin Guptill - dnp
Peter Handscomb- dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Jason Holder- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Mohammad Nabi- dnp
Joe Root- dnp


Overall


Babar Azam - 2300
Ben Stokes - 2295
Joe Root - 2286
Lewis Gregory - 2126
Simon Harmer - 1922
Aaron Finch - 1798
Jason Holder- 1691
Marnus Labuschagne - 1594
David Warner - 1584
Steve Smith - 1550
Mohammad Nabi - 1458
Colin Ackermann - 1435
Glenn Maxwell - 1435
Virat Kohli - 1330
Martin Guptill - 1243
Shubman Gill - 1217
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Tom Banton - 1048
Travis Head - 1036
Rohit Sharma - 892
Peter Handscomb - 383

David Warner - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Maybe the gods of Cricket are smiling on those less fortunate this week. Everyone that featured this week started in the bottom ten in terms of points per active week. This ranged from Glenn Maxwell at 125.18 down to Virat Kohli at 75.55. One player that made positive progress on all fronts is David Warner - this week's Cricketer of the Week. His 212 points this week is another improvement for the Australian who has got better and better as the IPL has continued. He began the tournament poorly with 6 runs against Bangalore. His next two performances saw him get points in the sixties. This week both his performances have been in three figures - 100 against Mumbai and 112 against Punjab. He is now the highest IPL scorer of our eleven players with 397 points. He has also scored the most runs, with the most Strike Rate points and joint most points for fielding. He can also boast the highest average points per game - standing at 66.17. Quite an achievement when you take that score of 6 into consideration. If you remove that game from history, his average would be a monumental 78.2. This stellar week has seen Warner move up five places on the overall list - overtaking Mohammad Nabi, Colin Ackermann and his three international colleagues Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne. There is quite a gulf between him and the next player on the list - Aaron Finch. With Finch's poor form you would not bet against Davey ending the IPL as our highest Australian competitor.

Whereas Warner's ascent has been gradual, Kohli's has shot up. Just two fixtures ago he was averaging 14 points per game - second lowest of all our players. At that time his highest score was 34 points from 14 runs and two catches against Hyderabad. Fast forward a week and Kohli's average is a more respectable 43.4 - the fourth most of our players. 72 runs against Rajasthan and 43 against Delhi has seen the Bangalore captain accrue 175 points this week. This is over four times his total for the previous two weeks combined. Such is the gap at the bottom end of the table, that this score only saw him move up one place on the overall list - over-taking Travis Head into 18th. There could be a little more progression for the combative Indian captain. He is currently doing rather well for Bangalore and has a little queue of people in front of him. He is 42 points behind inactive Kolkata player Tom Banton and 126 behind slightly more active Kolkata player Shubman Gill. Further ahead are Keshav Maharaj and Martin Guptill who have both been inactive for 28 weeks. With this in mind, Kohli could turn a poor 2020 on it's head. The last time Kohli made a move up the list was in the sixth week of the year where he moved from seventh to fourth. Whilst moving from 19th to 18th is a slightly different ball game, in current form the only way is up.

Under different circumstances Babar Azam would be one of the hottest prospects in an IPL franchise. Thanks for that Lord Mountbatten! As the creme de la creme of cricket impress in the UAE, Babar returned from Somerset to captain his Central Punjab team in the National T20 Cup. Whilst he was in quarantine for the obligatory two weeks, his team played five and lost four. No prizes for guessing that the return of a player of his calibre reversed their fortunes. Azam's opening fixture saw him score 86 from 52 balls helpin to put Northern Pakistan to the sword. This earned him 136 points - a very high total for a single T20 game. Of all the contributions we have had from our IPL players this year, the average points per game is 47.21. The highest individual score was Rohit Sharma's 120 against Kolkata. Azam scored 16 more than this. You may point the to the quality of opposition as an excuse for this. You would be wrong. The National T20 Cup boasts a hugely competitive quota of Pakistan internationals. The six Northen Pakistan bowlers he faced off against had a combined 206 T20I caps. These are no rookies. Azam's sparkling performance moves him up above Simon Harmer into fourth. Harmer and he have been jostling for position for some time but it would seem Azam has the beating of him as well as every IPL contributor.

Week


David Warner - 212
Shubman Gill - 186
Virat Kohli - 175
Babar Azam - 136
Rohit Sharma - 101
Steve Smith - 65
Glenn Maxwell - 58
Aaron Finch- 31


Kyle Abbott - dnp
Colin Ackermann- dnp
Tom Banton- dnp
Lewis Gregory - dnp
Martin Guptill- dnp
Peter Handscomb- dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Travis Head- dnp
Jason Holder - dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Mohammad Nabi- dnp
Joe Root - dnp
Ben Stokes - dnp


Overall


Joe Root - 2286
Ben Stokes - 2204
Lewis Gregory - 2126
Babar Azam - 1971
Simon Harmer - 1922
Jason Holder- 1691
Aaron Finch - 1665
David Warner - 1497
Mohammad Nabi - 1458
Steve Smith - 1437
Colin Ackermann - 1435
Glenn Maxwell - 1435
Marnus Labuschagne - 1337
Martin Guptill - 1243
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Shubman Gill - 1132
Tom Banton - 1048
Virat Kohli - 1006
Travis Head - 901
Rohit Sharma - 842
Peter Handscomb - 383