The Cricket List 2021 - From Ashwin to Williamson

 After a particularly unusual year on all fronts, Cricket might just return to something akin to normality next year. Let's see the players we will track throughout the year on The Cricket List. 

We will start with the Retained players 

Babar Azam - Babar had a free pass this year. He was the leading point scorer for 2020 and was the only player to get over the 3000 point mark. One minor caveat is that he did play an awful lot of cricket. At 22 active weeks, only Aaron Finch featured more in the year.

Peter Handscomb - A surprise retention. Other than Kyle Abbott (who played 2 games in 2020) Handscomb had the lowest total points (715). He was massively effected by the Lockdown which didn't allow him to join up with Middlesex. Maybe he'll put it right in Year 2.

Simon Harmer - Only featured in 8 weeks worth of cricket this year and subsequently fell out of the Top Ten for the first time. His average points per active week of 240.25 was the highest by some distance. Ackermann was second with 179.38.

Virat Kohli - After a disappointing 2020 that saw Kohli fail to win Cricketer of the Week at all, the Indian captain will hope for a better 2021. He is one of just three players to have featured in every Cricket List.

Marnus Labuschagne - After a strong end to 2019, Labuschagne only just scraped into the Top 10 of The List last year. He has another opportunity this year to see where he ranks.

Glenn Maxwell - 2019's winning player did not do quite as well in 2020. He did, however, finish very strongly and end up just outside the Top 5. A must to feature this year.

Joe Root - The ever present England captain had his most successful year in 2020. He was in third place for 20 weeks before dropping a place in the final week. It was still his highest year end spot since the start of The Cricket List.

Steve Smith - Another Aussie player who underperformed this year. Smith is a worldclass player so will be disappointed at just making the Top 10 last year. A poor IPL season really held him back.

Ben Stokes - Stokes spent 15 weeks in top spot only to be edged out in the final reckoning. His average of 164.17 points per active week was the third highest of 2020 behind Harmer and Ackermann who featured in 10 fewer weeks than the England man.

David Warner - Wee Davey's exceptional IPL form saw him creep into contention for a Top 5 berth before injury thwarting his progress. He will get another shot in 2021.

After those ten players to re-enter last year, we have a trio of players who return to the list after a period of time away. These returning players are

Ravichandran Ashwin - The King of Spin has had a return to form this year after a change of IPL team and a decent start to his tour of Australia. Can he improve on his 12th placed finish from 2018?

Quinton De Kock is another player to return from 2018. He is, for now, the captain of his team for all formats and should get a decent haul of points. He finished a disappointing 15th in 2018.

Kane Williamson appeared in the first two Cricket Lists finishing 9th in 2018 and 17th in 2019. He earned the title of an aesthetically beautiful batsmen who just couldn't pick up points. Will it be third time lucky?

And then finally for our 5 New Cricketers

Moeen Ali finds himself in a make or break year. His inclusion on this List should be a good barometer to see just how well his year is going. The Worcestershire man could find himself with a T20 World Cup Winners medal round his neck at the end of the year or out the picture.

Jasprit Bumrah is now a fully fledged World Classer. Long been something of an omission on these Lists. Let's see how far that unusual action takes him.

Dawid Malan started 2020 as something of an outcast from the England squad but ends it (statistically) the greatest T20 player of all time. Where will he register in this all together different list?

Nicholas Pooran came into fruition as a true T20 power hitter in 2020. Will he become the true successor to Chris Gayle in 2021?

Peter Siddle is a veteran now but should play a lot of cricket this year as he now spans both hemispheres turning out for Tasmania and Essex.

This means that there are a number of discarded players who we must say goodbye to.

From the 2020 Top Ten we say goodbye to IPL superstar Jason Holder and England fringe player Lewis Gregory. Indian pair Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma end their two year association with The Cricket List. They are joined by Martin Guptill, Keshav Maharaj, Travis Head, Mohammed Nabi, Colin Ackermann, Tom Banton and Kyle Abbott.