It's all well and good with your IPL but two of the best performances this week did not come from the UAE but from Rawalpindi and Adelaide. First off we have our Cricketer of the Week - Babar Azam whose 292 points is the eleventh highest score of the year. The Pakistan superstar has the eighth and eleventh highest weekly score of 2020 alongside the lowest (130). His two mega performances sees him win player of the series - but many will question the quality of opposition. Due to the skulduggery of the ICC scheduling system it is rare for any of our players to face off against Zimbabwe. This is just the sixth time any one on our List has had a fixture versus The Chevrons. These six performances encompass only four players: Shakib Al Hasan and Rashid Khan who have played them twice and Aaron Finch and Babar Azam who have played them the once. In terms of raw score, Azam's 292 is second after Rashid Khan's 328 against Zimbabwe in February 2018. That big total encompassed three ODIs compared to Azam's two. This means, on average, Rashid got 109.33 points per ODI whilst Azam got 146 this week. Azam was playing against a weak opponent but he played the best against that opponent than any of the players we have ever seen on our Lists over the last three years. And there is more to come. There is now three T20s. Babar finds himself in second position for the third week in a row but is just 118 points off Stokes in first. This is the first year we are seeing a real battle for supremacy at the top of the table. By the first week of November in 2018 Simon Harmer had a 1032 point lead on Rashid Khan, with Glenn Maxwell being 738 clear of Harmer last year. So whose side are you on; Azam or Stokes?
Travis Head must be overjoyed with his early performances in the Sheffield Shield. Justin Langer maybe less so. The Australia coach has an embarrassment of batsmen. Head has given him an ache with two centuries in the first three rounds of fixtures. Head was one of the players that was most effected by the Covid break; this week is only his tenth active week of 2020. Only Keshav Maharaj, Peter Handscomb (9 each) and Harmer and Colin Ackermann (8 each) have had less cricket this year. At the end of last year's Shield the Redback captain was riding high in eighth place with 901 points. The next time he picked up his bat in anger, four weeks ago, he had slumped to 19th. The long respite doesn't seem to have effected him at all as he has earned 538 points over the last month. This has seen him move up to 14th position. His total this week was boosted with 50 points for his bowling thanks to the wicket of Nic Maddinson and an economy of 5.21. A pretty useful week all told. Head finishes in the top five for the third week out of the last four and is now 40 points behind Virat Kohli. The Indian isn't playing as much cricket as he'd like over the next few days so it's likely that Head may overtake him. That Kohli vs Head battle may continue when they face off against each other in Adelaide in the First Test in December.
The T20 journey of Jason Holder has been rocky over the last few months. Like Rocky, it seems that the big man may prevail in the end. You may have ended the CPL thinking the West Indian Test captain was something of a busted flush in the shortest form of the game. He was out of the T20 national side and failed to impress with either bat or ball in his home tournament. He finished 12th on the run table and 15th for most wickets. Decent but nothing to boast about from the ICC's top rated All Rounder. If you compared him to Mohammad Nabi, the other player we had playing in the tournament, he came off second best. The Afghan All Rounder scored more points than him with more wickets at a better economy and more points from fielding. Then Holder was expecting a period of time in the cricketing wilderness. Until the injury of Mitchell Marsh and his call up for Hyderabad. Here we have many more players to compare Holder to - and the outcome is much more favourable for the Barbadian. After 6 games, Holder has scored 425 points - averaging 70.83. This is the highest for any of the 11 players from our List in this year's IPL. Three of his six performances have been in the top third of all points totals for players in our List. None of his performances have been in the bottom third. It is no coincidence that Hyderabad's fortunes pivoted the moment they dropped Bairstow for the West Indian. He is well worth his re-entry into the top 5. With at least one more game guaranteed and just 10 points off fourth position you would imagine the only way is up.
Week
Babar Azam - 292
Jason Holder - 270
Keshav Maharaj- 257
Travis Head - 230
Marnus Labuschagne- 187
David Warner - 180
Virat Kohli- 72
Shubman Gill - 66
Peter Handscomb- 55
Aaron Finch - 52
Ben Stokes - 28
Rohit Sharma - 14
Steve Smith- 14
Kyle Abbott - dnp
Colin Ackermann- dnp
Tom Banton - dnp
Lewis Gregory - dnp
Martin Guptill- dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Mohammad Nabi - dnp
Joe Root - dnp
Overall
Ben Stokes - 2729
Babar Azam - 2611
Joe Root - 2286
Lewis Gregory - 2126
Jason Holder- 2116
David Warner - 2066
Simon Harmer - 1922
Aaron Finch - 1881
Marnus Labuschagne - 1781
Steve Smith - 1681
Glenn Maxwell - 1565
Shubman Gill - 1522
Virat Kohli - 1519
Travis Head - 1479
Mohammad Nabi - 1458
Martin Guptill - 1456
Keshav Maharaj - 1427
Colin Ackermann - 1435
Tom Banton - 1066
Rohit Sharma - 927
Peter Handscomb - 438
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