Pathum Nissanka - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

A full compliment of T20 World Cup players this week with nobody featuring outside of that competition.

Weekly Top 5

1. Pathum Nissanka - 282 - Was looking worryingly out of nick up to this point of the year but burst into life with a century and a half century against Australia and Zimbabwe. When he is at his best, there are few better.

2. Aiden Markram - 214 - Continuing his fine spell of form with 114 runs scored over two T20 games....impressively he did better against the Test nation than he did the Associate.

3. Sam Curran - 213 - Not doing anything phenomenal (few English players are) but he is doing just enough with both bat and ball to feature in the weekly Top 5 for the second week in a row.

4. Travis Head - 168 - Something of a case of too little too late for the stand-in Aussie captain as he saved two decent performances for when his team were already on the brink. 27 points in the first two weeks and 168 in the last says it all.

5. Rachin Ravindra- 142 - Nothing like a knock against an Associate side to build confidence. RR is having a torrid time this year but bagged his first half century against Canada to see him pip into the Top 5 for the week.

Overall Top 5

1. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - 1302 - Despite the points spraying around in the T20 World Cup, for Vaibhav to still have a 200+ lead is really something special.

2. Quinton De Kock - 1085- A comparatively quiet week for QDK. He is now looking over his shoulder rather than into the distance as he has a lead of just 28 off third.

3. Sam Curran - 1057 - Despite being one of the highest point scorers this week, Curran is unable to move out of bronze medal position. Still games to play for him though.

4. Aiden Markram - 1041 - Despite his big points haul this week, he does not manage to move out of fourth spot. There is a huge gulf between himself and fifth, the largest anywhere on the List.

5. Harry Brook - 764 - A disappointing week does not see Brook lose his fifth placed position. 42 points sperate him from Saim Ayub in 6th.

Highest Weekly Average


1. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi = 260.4
2.Ravindra Jadeja = 181.33
3. Nat Sciver-Brunt = 177.75

Good Week for Pathum Nissanka; up 24.9 points to 102.57. Bad week for Harry Brook; down 17.87 to 127.33.

Highest Average Points per Game

Red Ball- Simon Harmer = 248.5
One Day - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi = 108.5
Short Form - Nat Sciver-Brunt = 101.57

Highest Points by Format

* =New Name

Red Ball- Simon Harmer = 248.5
One Day - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - 1302
Short Form - Quinton De Kock = 1085

Highest Points by Discipline

Runs - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - 742
Batting Bonus - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi- 170
Strike Rate - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - 280

Wickets - Marco Jansen = 360
Wicket Bonus = Sam Curran = 60
Economy - Simon Harmer= 100

Fielding - Quinton de Kock = 190
Fielding Bonus - Marco Jansen, Harry Brook, Quinton de Kock + Michael Bracewell = 10

Weekly List In Full

Pathum Nissanka 282
Aiden Markram 214
Sam Curran 213
Travis Head 168
Rachin Ravindra 142
Saim Ayub 140
Marco Jansen 100
Quinton de Kock 74
Phil Salt 70
Liam Dawson 50
Harry Brook 38
Jos Buttler 36

Overall List In Full

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 1302
Quinton de Kock 1085
Sam Curran 1057
Aiden Markram 1041
Harry Brook 764
Saim Ayub 722
Pathum Nissanka 718
Nat Sciver-Brunt 711
Marco Jansen 676
Jos Buttler 625
Ravindra Jadeja 544
Travis Head 510
Simon Harmer 497
Rachin Ravindra 449
Liam Dawson 397
Phil Salt 291
Shubman Gill 240
Sophie Ecclestone 226
Mehidy Hasan Miraz 218
Nicholas Pooran 192
Michael Bracewell 184

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Well here we are again....and what a doozy of a week with over 2000 points scored. Let's see who leads us out.

Scores after Week 1

1. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - 386 - Sooryavanshi, like Athapaththu before him, is a very experimental pick. Something of an unknown quantity and a very left field pick. And just like Athapaththu, he dispels those concerns by finishing first in Week 1. Very impressive debut.

2. Ravindra Jadeja - 288 - A couple of games for Saurashtra in the Vijay Hazare Trophy this week and he underlined his all rounder capabilities by scoring in 7 of the 8 point scoring categories.....just Fielding Bonus points for him left.

3. Travis Head- 262 - Had a stinker of a year last year and never reached nay higher than ninth. He is now born again as an opener and has come straight in at Number 3 for the New Year. Can he return to his 2024 peak where he finished third?

4. Harry Brook - 176 - Will want to put 2025 well behind him. He finished 10th but was a year replete with poor decision; both on and off the field. 126 runs in the final Test is enough for him to start the year on the front foot.

5. Jos Buttler - 163 - Refreshingly...and I suspect rarely....the highest T20 point score of the year only manages to sneak into the Top 5. 113 runs for Durban in the SA20 (albeit very unevenly split) also gives Buttler the best T20 average with him scoring 81 and a half points per game (a new metric for 2026)


Highest Weekly Average

Not applicable this week

Highest Average Points per Game

Red Ball- n/a
One Day - Ravindra Jadeja - 144
Short Form - Jos Buttler - 81.5

Highest Points by Format

Red Ball- Travis Head - 262
One Day - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - 386
Short Form - Jos Buttler - 163

Highest Points by Discipline

Runs - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - 206
Batting Bonus - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi- 50
Strike rate - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - 70

Wickets - Ravindra Jadeja - 80
Wicket Bonus - Ravindra Jadeja - 20
Economy Saim Ayub - 30

Fielding - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - 40
Fielding Bonus - n/a

List In Full

1 Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 386
2 Ravindra Jadeja 288
3 Travis Head 262
4 Harry Brook 176
5 Jos Buttler 163
6 Sam Curran 161
7 Quinton de Kock 149
8 Saib Ayub 144
9 Nicholas Pooran 112
10 Mehidy Hasan Miraz 109
11 Rachin Ravindra 97
12 Aiden Markram 93
13 Phil Salt 63
14 Simon Harmer 46
15 Pathum Nissanka 22
16 Shubman Gill 11
17 Marco Jansen 0
18 Liam Dawson ytp
19 Nat Sciver-Brunt ytp
20 Sophie Ecclestone ytp
21 Michael Bracewell ytp
22 Paul Walter ytp

Nicholas Pooran - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Final Full Weekly Top 5

1. Nicholas Pooran - 221 - We are very much in the midst of franchise cricket mania with competitions in Australia, Bangladesh, Dubai and South Africa. Pooran played four times in two of these competitions. Still 141 is a good haul for his fourth Cricketer of the Week of the year.

2. Travis Head - 220 - One point behind this week's 'best' cricketer courtesy of another huge score in another huge Ashes success. Moves up from 17th to 15th in what has otherwise been an underwhelming year.

3. Sam Curran - 166 - Just on his usual T20 grind. 66 runs and a wicket in three games in the ILT20 sees him in the Top 5 once more.

4. Kane Williamson - 161 - Finished off a Test match before kicking off a T20 tournament in South Africa ...and did pretty well in both. 91 points from the red ball game and 70 from the white ball one.

5. Jamie Smith - 152 - Probably his least disappointing disappointment across The Ashes. 82 runs and 4 contributions in the field.

Overall Top 5 with 5 days Left of the Year

1. Sam Curran -4951 - 657 point lead on second place. All but wrapped up that Curran will join Buttler as the second Englishman to win our Cricketer of the Year.

2. Nat Sciver-Brunt - 4294 - Inactive but very comfortable for a second place finish this year. The second year in a row a female cricketer has taken the silver medal.

3. Liam Dawson - 4061 - Got the indignity of a zero point week this week....but is one of the players who will be in action this week so it least he won't round of his year with a blob. Provides a slight symmetry though as his second weekly score was a zero to go along with his second to last.

4. Jos Buttler- 3972 - Had been inactive for 6 weeks and dropped from 2nd to 5th but just 60 points non Friday for Durban sees him back up a spot to 4th....89 off a bronze medal.

5.Ravindra Jadeja - 3966 - Was not part of the Indian gang that joined up to play domestic cricket in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and thus drops down a place.

Ones To Watch

Only 161 points separate Jamie Smith, Chamari Athapaththu, Travis Head, Liam Livingstone and Henrich Klaasen. All will be active over the next 5 days so all to play for,

Other Movers

Babar Azam's mini-Renaissance continues as he rises up to 15th place.

Top 3 Averages

1. Sam Curran - 150.03 (Up from 149.53)
2. Ravindra Jadeja = 136.76
3. Nat Sciver-Brunt = 136.1

Travis Head's big score sees his average improve by 4.8 ....but at 90.21 he has the fourth worst of anyone. Phil Salt's bad week sees him drop 3.4 and move down to 115.28.

Top Players By Format

Red Ball -Ravindra Jadeja= 2529
One Day - Nat Sciver Brunt = 1484
Short Form - Sam Curran 4034

Top Players by Discipline

* = New Name

Runs - Yashasvi Jaiswal = 2060
Batting Bonus - Passum Nissanka = 440
Strike Rate – Nicholas Pooran = 1010

Wickets - Liam Dawson - 1640
Wicket Bonus - Ravindra Jadeja = 200
Economy - Ravindra Jadeja = 750

Fielding - Jos Buttler = 630
Fielding Bonus - Jamie Smith, Jos Buttler & Phil Salt – 40

Weekly List In Full

Nicholas Pooran 221
Travis Head 220
Sam Curran 166
Kane Williamson 161
Jamie Smith 152
Rishabh Pant 125
Harry Brook 125
Babar Azam 110
Jasprit Bumrah 70
Chamari Athapaththu 69
Jos Buttler 60
Saim Ayub 58
Heinrich Klaasen 53
Liam Livingstone 21
Adam Zampa 18
Phil Salt 10
Suryakumar Yadav 5
Liam Dawson 0

Wanindu Hasaranga dnp
Annabel Sutherland dnp
Ravindra Jadeja dnp
Yashasvi Jaiwal dnp
Nat Sciver-Brunt dnp
Pathum Nissanka dnp

Overall Scores In Full

1 Sam Curran 4951
2 Nat Sciver-Brunt 4294
3 Liam Dawson 4061
4 Jos Buttler 3972
5 Ravindra Jadeja 3966
6 Nicholas Pooran 3848
7 Phil Salt 3689
8 Annabel Sutherland 3460
9 Yashasvi Jaiwal 3218
10 Pathum Nissanka 3109
11 Harry Brook 3021
12 Kane Williamson 2911
13 Saim Ayub 2846
14 Jamie Smith 2630
15 Babar Azam 2549
16 Chamari Athapaththu 2532
17 Travis Head 2526
18 Liam Livingstone 2496
19 Heinrich Klaasen 2487
20 Wanindu Hasaranga 2463
21 Suryakumar Yadav 2263
22 Jasprit Bumrah 2078
23 Rishabh Pant 1977
24 Adam Zampa 1576