Babar Azam - The Best Cricketer of the Week

(NB: This was written before Saturday morning's PSL game)

It's all well and good being one of the highest point scorer of 2020 when you have played the most cricket. That has been the message that I have been giving about Azam - up until this week. As he wins Cricketer of the Week for the fourth time, he also opens up a 115 point gap in first as he returns to the PSL for anything between one and three games. Babar's rise to the top has been long and patient. He did not register any points until Week 4 and was then silent for a further 6 weeks before he broke into the top top ten. From there he has plodded up the table in a workmanlike fashion that does not fit his approach to batting. It is notable that Azam has only gone backwards on the List on two occasions throughout the whole of the year. This could be down to the sheer amount of cricket the new Pakistan Test captain has played this year. This has been his 21st active week in 2020 - three more than Tom Banton, Steve Smith and Aaron Finch in second. For a long period of time it was this high amount of cricket that benefitted his position. At the start of September Azam's average points per active week stood at 94.64. This was the fourth lowest of any active player on our list. Since then his spell playing domestic cricket and the home series against Zimbabwe has seen him now with the eleventh highest - 135.43. This puts him in amongst the Labuschagnes and Holders of this world. As we approach the end of the year there is still cricket to be played for both Babar and Ben. We should see a dog fight until the bitter end - but we can confidently say that Azam deserves his place.

And it's not just the top of the table where there is a battle of supremacy. There is very little between the whole of our middle band of players on the list. This has been best exemplified this week by Keshav Maharaj. Despite only scoring 150 points, the spinner jumped up a ridiculous six places - from seventeenth to eleventh. There is just 142 points between Maharaj in 11th and Colin Ackermann in 19th. To put this into perspective there is a gap of 989 between 1st and 9th. This means that it's all to play for in those middle positions. Maharaj deserves his surge up the table. However it seems a week too late. The Saffer was joint with Peter Handscomb as the two players who had to wait the longest to return to cricket after lockdown. The pair had to wait 32 weeks without a game. It was the bowler who impressed the most on return with 7 wickets in the opening fixture of the 4-Day Franchise Series. His 257 points and third place finish for the week only saw him move from 18th to 17th. This week, his more humble tally of three wickets and 150 points sees him move up six spots. It's a funny old game. Further progression up the table is possible but will not come as easily. To overtake Steve Smith and move into the top ten, Maharaj will need 104 points - however ninth place Aaron Finch is 278 points away. Both Aussies will play instrumental parts in the closing weeks of the year. Maharaj is proving that it is all very much to play for even if you were out the game for a while.

A more exciting end to the IPL would have been more ideal - however many of our players would be most pleased with their seasons. The most eye-catching pair on our list did not even make the final. In terms of raw numbers it was David Warner who profited the most. His 974 points throughout the competition was 204 greater than Shubman Gill in second. He scored the most runs and got the most points for fielding than any of our eleven players. He also had the third highest average points per game - 60.86. This was the highest average for a player who featured in all games. In a weird quirk - despite the huge amount of cricket played - only two players weekly average for 2020 improved. Warner was one of those with his average going up by the grandiose 2.86 points per active week of cricket. He is currently 14th on that particular metric with 114.89 points a week. Turning to the main list, he benefitted the most there too. He started the competition in 15th place and ended in sixth. Not bad going. The player that made the greatest impact on our list was inarguably Jason Holder. Despite playing just seven games, his 456 points was enough to see him finish above Glenn Maxwell who got 238 from 13 and Aaron Finch who got 428 from 12. He finished with the most wickets with eleven more than Maxwell. What is more impressive is the West Indian's average. He finished with the highest average of any player with 65.14 points a game. At no point during the tournament did his points per game average drop below 50. This has seen him move up a further one place on the table into fourth overall. More importantly than this, come the next round of IPL auctions you can bet your bottom dollar Holder will be the hottest property.

Week


Babar Azam - 233
Peter Handscomb- 181
Keshav Maharaj - 150
Rohit Sharma - 108
Marnus Labuschagne- 74
Travis Head - 47
Jason Holder- 31
David Warner - 2


Kyle Abbott - dnp
Colin Ackermann- dnp
Tom Banton - dnp
Aaron Finch- dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Martin Guptill- dnp
Lewis Gregory - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Virat Kohli - dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Mohammad Nabi- dnp
Joe Root- dnp
Steve Smith - dnp
Ben Stokes - dnp


Overall


Babar Azam - 2844
Ben Stokes - 2729
Joe Root - 2286
Jason Holder- 2147
Lewis Gregory - 2126
David Warner - 2068
Simon Harmer - 1922
Aaron Finch - 1881
Marnus Labuschagne - 1855
Steve Smith - 1681
Keshav Maharaj - 1577
Glenn Maxwell - 1565
Travis Head - 1526
Shubman Gill - 1522
Virat Kohli - 1519
Mohammad Nabi - 1458
Martin Guptill - 1456
Colin Ackermann - 1435
Tom Banton - 1066
Rohit Sharma - 1035
Peter Handscomb - 617