Joe Root - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

To say that things are returning back to normal is something over an overstatement but we are getting there. Last week only ten players did not feature. This is the lowest Week for inactive Cricketers since the week beginning March 9th. It's also quite a unique Week as all players have been competing solely in the T20 format. What's more is that an awful lot of these Cricketers have been awfully active. A lot of our active players have featured in four T20 games this week with Jason Holder featuring in five. The player that featured the least is Colin Ackermann with two completed games (points are only allocated for completed games - much to the chagrin of Tom Banton). That week in March where cricket was still 'normal' saw Joe Root as Cricketer of the Week. Almost symbolically he has claimed the title again this week. Root has 'done a Stuart Broad' and reacted to his lack of inclusion in the England T20 side by looking like one of the premium short form players of our age. Across three games for Yorkshire he has scored 154 runs and got four wickets. Statistics that are verging on all- rounder status. What is more impressive is that he has got his highest ever weekly score of 364 featuring in just 4 games. Of all the players that featured this week he has the highest point per game average of 121.33. In this English international heavy year, Root is pulling away from the pack and is gaining on Stokes. Second place Root now has a 340 point lead on Holder and has narrowed the gap between himself and Ben Stokes to 292. With Stokes out of the game for the foreseeable and Holder with one game left in the CPL, Root is likely to continue his dominance in 2020. This is especially the case if he continues to offer something with both bat and ball.

This balance between bat and ball has also seen Mohammad Nabi debut in the Top 5. When Joe Root last won Cricketer of the Week, Nabi played his final game until the start of the CPL three weeks ago. He went into lockdown in 14th position, started the CPL in 17th position, after the first week was in tenth and is now fifth. He has shown himself to be the best All Rounder in the competition. He is the only player to feature in the top ten highest run scorer and top ten most wickets. He has also had the beating of fellow Cricket List CPL All Rounder Holder. Nabi has only scored two more runs at a lower strike rate but he has out performed Holder in all other categories. Nabi has three more wickets, 50 more economy points, twenty more fielding points and points for a three wicket haul. Since the start of the tournament Nabi has scored 605 points to Holder's 503. What is more Barbados are out and St Lucia are looking likely to progress. This could see Nabi encroach further up the List as the tournament continues. Nabi's consistency has also been impressive. Despite playing four games, his average point score is second highest over the last week - 81.25 a game. If St Lucia progress to the final they have at least three games to play - on paper another 244 points for the Afghan. A. Rey good basis for the All Rounder to build up on in the IPL.

As I have said, we have had a lot more active players this week. This is largely down to the fact that Australia have started playing again. This year's list has a high proportion of Aussies and five of them returned to work for the first time this week. As well as yesterday's opening T20 against England, they played out 3 (completed) Intra-Squad T20 friendlies. The two best players in those games were Marnus Labuschagne and Glenn Maxwell. Scholars of the game will notice that their success in the friendly games didn't transfer into the main game. Marnus Labuschagne had the third highest average points per game total in the three warm up games - 72.67. His 51 ball century opening for the AJ Finch XI against the PJ Cummins XI is responsible for most of this. One of the problems that Finch and Langer seem to be having with Labuschagne is where to play him. He scored his century as an opener - but Finch and Warner's performance yesterday makes it unlikely that combo will be tampered with. His second highest score came at first drop - Smith's position - whilst he failed with a score of 7 when he batted at five. Ironically, this is the position for which he is being groomed. Marcus Stoinis and Alex Carey are going to be looked at closely after yesterday's performance. Labuschagne could either replace Stoinis or push Carey down a spot. Either way Labuschagne, who only just dropped out of the top ten last week, sees himself back up to 7th place. Returning 2019 Cricketer of the Year Glenn Maxwell did not have a dream resumption to his national career. After a period of time off for mental health followed by a shoulder injury, Maxwell got one run yesterday. He di bolster his overall score with a brace of wickets and 20 economy points. This saw him escape with a creditable 61 points. In many ways, he had a similar warm-up series to Labuschagne. A century in the first game followed by an average score (20) and a low score (10). Across the four games he averaged 69.75 points per game and also got the third highest total points for the week. Not bad for a batsman who scored just one run in the main game for the week. This profitable week sees him move from 19th to 15th. This now makes the bottom three, in ascending order, Peter Handscomb, Rohit Sharma and Colin Ackermann.

For reference, the rest of the average points per game rankings runs like this:
Babar Azam 58.75
Simon Harmer 57.67
Aaron Finch 48.25
Jason Holder 46.4
Tom Banton 38
David Warner 33.25
Steve Smith 29.5
Colin Ackermann 20
Lewis Gregory 17

Week

Joe Root- 364
Mohammad Nabi- 325
Glenn Maxwell - 279
Babar Azam - 235
Jason Holder - 232
Marnus Labuschagne- 218
Aaron Finch- 193
Simon Harmer - 173
David Warner - 133
Steve Smith - 118
Tom Banton - 114
Lewis Gregory - 68
Colin Ackermann- 40

Kyle Abbott - dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Martin Guptill- dnp
Peter Handscomb- dnp
Travis Head- dnp
Virat Kohli- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Rohit Sharma- dnp
Ben Stokes- dnp

Overall

Ben Stokes - 2204
Joe Root - 1912
Jason Holder- 1572
Babar Azam - 1535
Mohammad Nabi - 1326
Martin Guptill - 1243
Marnus Labuschagne - 1218
Simon Harmer - 1217
Lewis Gregory - 1210
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Aaron Finch - 1173
Steve Smith - 1127
Tom Banton - 1024
David Warner - 954
Glenn Maxwell - 928
Travis Head - 901
Virat Kohli - 787
Shubman Gill - 752
Colin Ackermann -725
Rohit Sharma - 471
Peter Handscomb - 383

Simon Harmer - The Best Cricketer of the Week

We could wax lyrical for ten thousand words about the skills of Simon Harmer and it would still not do him justice. For a record stretching eighteenth week the South African claims the Cricketer of the Week honours - and does so playing considerably fewer games than most others on the list. With the return of T20 cricket and the fact that I held back this post until the end of the Test match, we have seen much more cricket played over the course of the last week. Simon Harmer is just one of three players to have played just one four day game in that time. The other two were Tom Banton and Lewis Gregory who scored 304 and 123 fewer points than he did. We will hear more from them later. Yet again Harmer delivered a 360 degree bowling and fielding performance with a full allocation of sixty points for economy and a bonus of  fifty points from catches in the field. Harmer has really put himself back in the mix in this truncated Summer. His 327 points sees him jump from 16th place to 8th - a nosebleed inducing ascent. This all does come with a slight caveat. Despite his individual success, weather has conspired against Essex this week meaning their game against Hampshire was a draw. This not only stopped Harmer from achieving even more but potentially sees them having to fight to reach the final of the Bob Willis Trophy. Harmer may just have one more four day match left this year! On top of this, Essex are now heading into the T20 Blast. The upside of this is a barrage of more frequent games but the downside is that Harmer does less well in the shorter format. This may seem anomalous when you consider that his previous high score before last week's 14 wicket haul came in that memorable T20 finals weekend - however this is very much the outlier. In the group stages both Essex and Harmer looked distinctly average and the South African carried this (lack of form) into the Msanzi Super League. If he looks over his shoulder he sees the likes of Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Aaron Finch just starting their Summers. Could we potentially see Harmer outside the top ten? It will make 2020 an even weirder year than it already is. 

Harmer is not the only player that has soared up the Overall List this week. Mohammad Nabi has moved up seven places thanks to four games for St Lucia whilst Jason Holder moves into third place overall for the same amount of game for Barbados. Whilst Hilder has grabbed the headlines slightly more with some big hitting innings, it is Nabi who leads him out in terms of points scored this week. The reason for this is largely consistency in bowling. Holder only got 30 points for economy across all four games. This pales in comparison to Nabi who got 60 across just three games. Such is Nabi's consistency that over the last three games he has got figures of 4.75 and then 4.25 twice. Another area where Nabi has contributed in the field where he has had a catch in each of his four matches. With the bat in hand, however, Holder is in control. Whilst he only has 11 more runs than his Afghan compatriot, his strike rates are through the roof - most notably in his 27 off 12 balls against Nabi's St Lucia. There are still plenty more games in this competition and it will be very interesting to see how these two all rounders measure up when the tournament is done and dusted. 

What of Tom Banton and Lewis Gregory who we mentioned earlier? They were the pair who, like Simon Harmer, only played a solitary Bob Willis Trophy match before being called up on ODI duty. The fates of the two cidermen have been pretty divergent in that time. Returning from injury to face Warwickshire, Gregory performed tidily. Match figures of 5-80 with a pretty economy has seen him move up to seventh place - his highest position since week 2 where everything is a bit fuzzy anyway. Seventh place, ahead of the likes of Steve Smith and Virat Kohli, is very flattering for Gregory. In a normal year it would seem very unlikely that he would hold such an exalted position - however if he played as he did last week he wouldn't be far off. On the other side of the coin, his teammate Banton had another torrid week with the bat. Last week he got 18 and 2 against Northamptonshire and got the lowest points of any active player on the list. This week he got 13 against Warwickshire and ended with the lowest points of any active player on the list. Since lockdown eased Banton has played nine innings in all formats of the game - he has scored over 50 in two of those innings and under 18 in the other seven. This is not good enough from England's wunderkind. Barton's lack of progress is rather splendidly symbolised in the list. He is the only player to have scored points since lockdown and moved backwards in the table - moving from 12th to 13th. Banton needs to redress his issues quicksharp.  

 Week

Simon Harmer - 337

Mohammad Nabi- 300 

Jason Holder - 271

Colin Ackermann- 264

Lewis Gregory - 204

Joe Root-  109

Babar Azam - 94

Tom Banton - 23

Kyle Abbott - dnp 

Aaron Finch - dnp 

Shubman Gill - dnp 

Martin Guptill- dnp 

Peter Handscomb - dnp 

Virat Kohli- dnp 

Marnus Labuschagne- dnp 

Keshav Maharaj- dnp 

Glenn Maxwell - dnp 

Rohit Sharma- dnp 

Steve Smith - dnp 

Ben Stokes - dnp

David Warner - dnp 

Overall 

Ben Stokes - 2204

Joe Root - 1548

Jason Holder- 1340

Babar Azam - 1300

Martin Guptill - 1243

Keshav Maharaj - 1176

Lewis Gregory - 1142

Simon Harmer - 1044

Steve Smith - 1109

Mohammad Nabi - 1001

Marnus Labuschagne - 1000

Aaron Finch - 980

Tom Banton - 910

Travis Head - 901

David Warner - 821

Virat Kohli - 787

Shubman Gill - 752

Colin Ackermann  -685

Glenn Maxwell - 650

Rohit Sharma - 471

Peter Handscomb - 383

Shakib Al Hasan - The Best Cricketer of the Week

So.....we can't always be right and we can't always predict the circuitous paths that some of our Cricketers take around the world. Last week cricket for Shakib Al Hassan looked unlikely for the foreseeable future. He was not part of the MSL and his next game for Bangladesh was in November. A well earned rest was on the cards. Except for the fact that the Bangladesh skipper already had his bags packed for the exotic climes of the Caribbean to join up with Barbados. As soon as he touched down he was in action against St Kitts and Nevis and from there he didn't look back, ending the week with four wickets, 63 runs and 273 points as well as a second Cricketer of the Week accolade for 2019. It is a well timed burst of points as a vast majority of the players in our list were inactive this week. Shakib has taken advantage of this to muscle his way up the table and find himself in the heady position of fourth once again. Not bad at all for a player who was in eighth spot just a month ago, however a profitable September saw him pick up 824 points and puts him back in the mix once more.

There is a stage of every Cricketers life where they have outgrown their domestic teams and competitions but are not yet natural selections for their national team. This is the case for Shreyas Iyer. Indian cricket always has a number of cabs bustling to be the next one to leave the rank however Iyer has his nose ahead of the rest with some impressive short form performances which have encouraged Ravi Shastri to state that he will give the young Mumbai batsman an extended run in the ODI team. This being said, the times when Iyer has impressed the most has been when he is dominating for Mumbai. His sole Cricketer of the Week accolade came in February where he scored 296 runs across three games in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. This week, whilst not as prolific, has been similar. Iyer completed two fifty over games in the Vijay Hazare Trophy accruing two half centuries, both at strike rates over 80 and turning his hand to some bowling to boost his overall total. His 263 points is his highest weekly total since Week 14. This sees him finish second for the week and forces him above Jos Buttler and Duanne Olivier into eleventh position. A good domestic season could see the Mumbai captain end up in the top ten for 2019.

The Hundred has proved rather controversial from the outset but, for those players we want to take forward into the 2020 list, it is something we will have to consider. We have eight players who have featured in both our 2018 and 2019 lists of the best Cricketers in the world: Simon Harmer, Jeetan Patel, Rashid Khan, Virat Kohli, Shakib Al Hasan, Kane Williamson Jos Buttler and Joe Root. With one exception these players are definite for the tournament. Root has already signed on for the Trent Bridge team whilst Jos Buttler will represent Manchester. Harmer and Patel are very likely to be players hotly contested in the draft with Patel likely to be selected for the Birmingham side that is aligned with Warwickshire. Rashid Khan, Shakib and Williamson have already signed on for the draft and it is inconceivable they wouldn't get selected. The only question mark is on the selection of Virat Kohli. The Indian captain has been one of the more vocal international critics of the tournament. If you add this to the BCCIs reluctance to let any Indian players participate in any short form tournament outside the IPL then it looks like Virat may have to sit this one out. Other players that will feature in the draft that have been part of our list at some point or another include: Steve Smith, David Warmer, Quinton De Kock and Aaron Finch whilst Stokes has already signed for the Northern team, Bairstow for the Welsh team and 2018 alum Jofra Archa will represent the Southern Team. Whether we like it or not, the selection of 2020 players will need to bear this competition in mind.

Week

Shakib Al Hasan - 273
Shreyas Iyer - 263
Glenn Maxwell - 90
Mohammad Abbas - 70
Callum Ferguson - 58
Joe Burns - 21
Rohit Sharma - 10

Jonny Bairstow - dnp
Jos Buttler - dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Shai Hope - dnp
Rashid Khan - dnp
Virat Kohli - dnp
Jack Leach - dnp
Morne Morkel - dnp
Duanne Olivier - dnp
Jeetan Patel - dnp
Wayne Parnell - dnp
Abdur Razzak - dnp
Joe Root - dnp
Ben Stokes - dnp
Kane Williamson - dnp
Kuldeep Yadav - dnp

Overall

Glenn Maxwell - 5267
Simon Harmer - 4974
Jeetan Patel - 4385
Shakib Al Hasan -3814
Joe Root- 3769
Ben Stokes - 3706
Rashid Khan - 3613
Virat Kohli- 3494
Jonny Bairstow - 3429
Rohit Sharma - 2884
Duanne Olivier - 2852
Shreyas Iyer - 2796
Jos Buttler - 2793
Wayne Parnell - 2743
Kane Williamson - 2498
Morne Morkel - 2438
Jack Leach - 2378
Shubman Gill - 2102
Shai Hope - 1976
Callum Ferguson - 1893
Mohammad Abbas - 1857
Kuldeep Yadav - 1694
Joe Burns - 1128
Abdur Razzak- 898

Jeetan Patel - The Best Cricketer of the Week

Whereas the last few weeks have seen a great deal of point scoring going on for our 24 best Cricketers in the world, this week has seen three Cricketers do very well indeed, a few post a score and the rest inactive or in incomplete games. The top accolade this week goes to Jeetan Patel who has returned from the T20 wilderness to impress for Warwickshire in a victory against Middlesex in which he claimed ten wickets - including equalling his best ever yield of wickets in an innings. He also claimed his 800th first class wicket in the game. This performance has seen the New Zealand captain move up the table and slide ever closer towards Simon Harmer in top spot. There is now just 108 points between first and second place as Harmer finishes his game against Hampshire this afternoon. Joining Patel up the top both this week and overall is Rashid Khan who also impressed in his three ODIs against Ireland. His eight wickets in the week sees him fall just short of top spot this week but sees the top three of Harmer, Patel and Khan move further away from the chasing pack. There is now 617 points between Khan and Jos Buttler in fourth place. With the County Championship season drawing to a close the big question is whether Harmer and Patel can put enough space between themselves and others to finish in a competitive position as they are inactive through the autumn?

The CPL must be a tantalising payday for the stars of world cricket, however for those out of form it must be a desperate place to be. With games spread out geographically and temporally more than you would normally see in a franchise tournament, if you are out of touch then it must be a uniquely difficult place to pick up any momentum. We have previously seen this with David Warner but this week Hashim Amla and Steve Smith have brought this into especially sharp focus. Amla joined up with Barbados late off the back of some pretty dire form for South Africa and has seen an even sharper decline at the franchise. His average in the CPL this year is now a pathetic 8.5 - even more shockingly his August average is not much better at 19.5. One wonders if a spell in the nets would have improved Amla's game if not his bank account. Steve Smith, on the other hand, does not have the luxury to step away from the game for respite due to an enforced period of rest handed down by Cricket Australia. This week Smith picked up 123, which doesn't sound too bad until you learn that he played 4 games in that time. Off the back of his 63 and 2-19 against Jamaica many thought he could pick up a bit of touch and push on in this tournament. This thought has been very much put to bed by the three scores that preceded that game being 4, 0 and 9. Yesterday's score of 40 puts him back on our radar again but is likely to lead to disappointment if his recent sporadic performances are anything to go by. The only respite that the former Australian captain can gain is that he has overtaken David Warner in the overall table - the last time this was the case was back in March. 

Week

Jeetan Patel - 358
Jofra Archer- 332
Rashid Khan - 311
Steve Smith - 123
David Warner - 92
Sunil Narine- 13
Dean Elgar- 8
Hashim Amla - 5

Shakib Al Hasan - dnp 
Ravi Ashwin- dnp 
George Bailey - dnp 
Jos Buttler - dnp 
Quinton De Kock- dnp 
AB De Villiers- dnp 
JP Duminy- dnp 
Aaron Finch - dnp 
Simon Harmer - dnp 
Ravi Jadeja- dnp 
Virat Kohli- dnp 
Nathan Lyon - dnp
Mitchell Marsh - dnp 
Shaun Marsh - dnp 
Joe Root- dnp 
Kane Williamson - dnp 

Overall

Simon Harmer - 4699
Jeetan Patel - 4591
Rashid Khan - 4330
Jos Buttler - 3713
Jofra Archer - 3513
Aaron Finch - 3343
Virat Kohli- 3309
Sunil Narine- 3144
Kane Williamson - 3094
Joe Root - 3073
Shakib Al Hasan - 2582
Ravi Ashwin - 2385
JP Duminy - 2336
Quinton de Kock - 2020
Hashim Amla - 2013
AB De Villiers- 2010
Nathan Lyon - 1833
Dean Elgar- 1694
Shaun Marsh- 1498
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
Steve Smith - 1350
David Warner - 1349
Ravi Jadeja - 1226
George Bailey - 631

Jofra Archer - The Best Cricketer of the Week

The rise and rise of Jofra Archer continued this week with the young West Indian Englishman continuing to develop his acumen as an all rounder. Last week I compared the young man to David Warner and said that what the former brought to the party was the ability to change a game with bat, ball and in the field - this continued this week. Strangely enough, for a player that is widely considered a bowler, he is not at the top of the tree this week for his wickets alone. Despite the fact he got only two wickets in the County Championship Divison 2 game against Derbyshire and a further one in the T20 blast game vs Durham, he also picked up 65 points in maidens and a further 60 for some stranglingly low economies. He has also been the ambassador for a trend that we have started to see in the longer form cricket for posting heady strike rates, the likes of which were never seen in years gone by. Archer's 31 off 19 balls was not the only exhibition of hard hitting this week. Aaron Finch's 32 off 34 balls for Surrey against Lancashire and Jos Buttler's 39 off 32 balls for England against India all stand out in the strike rate column. It is perhaps no surprise that the trio of Archer, Finch and Buttler - whilst all very much impressing in the longer form of the game - are forged as batsmen in the pyrotechnical fires of T20 and are able to bring this across to the Test or County Championship arena. This is all well and good in certain scenarios as long as it is controlled and a mode that you can switch in and out of as you please; if it is a sign of a one track mind you better hope that that track is flat.

There have been times when Joe Root and Virat Kohli's performances have been so similar it has been almost unbelievable. This was put to bed emphatically this week with Virat Kohli pulling away from his counterpart in a dramatic fashion. The 260 points scored by the Indian captain by far outstrips the paltry 59 scored by Root. This has been underlined by Kohli's sudden lurch up the overall table. Kohli has jumped over Sunil Narine into 6th place. In contrast Joe Root has dropped two places down the table to tenth, having been overtaken by Jofra Archer and Kane Williamson. For the pair, who have been so long inseparable in 7th and 8th place it really is a strong upper hand for the touring captain. Root's position in the top ten is unchallenged for now due to the fact there is a gap of 688 between him and the next highest scoring active player in Ravi Ashwin - but for the Yorkshireman to be looking down rather than up the table must be dispiriting for him. 

That old adage of there being nothing either good or bad but thinking making it so could be put to the Test depending on which one of our representatives you ask about the quality of the CPL. Two players who would err on the thinking bad side would be Sunil Narine and Hashim Amla. Sunil Narine, for the third time in 2018, registered a 0-point game in Trinidad and Tobago's outing against Jamaica - getting a duck and figures of 0-42. It again makes you wonder how a player so devastating in the IPL falls short so often in other T20 franchises. Another player trying his hand in the CPL is Hashim Amla who continues a rather unimpressive run of form with a score of just 15 from Barbados' game against Jamaica. On the other side of this coin is two players who have been rather used to turning over coins and seeing huge piles of steaming excrement rather than any kind of luck. Whilst David Warner's form with the bat is still not electric, he scored two consecutive scores over ten for the first time since July this week and got 95 points. Steve Smith was rather more impressive and posted 143 which included 40 points for bowling - an unusually high yield for him. Whilst 95 and 143 are not hugely impressive scores they are enough for both men to leapfrog Ravi Jadeja and make their first upward movement in the game since their banishment from mainstream cricket. Their next target is fellow Australian Mitchell Marsh in 19th place. The bowler, who has not played since March, is 168 points ahead of Warner and 168 for Smith. 

Week

Jofra Archer- 271
Virat Kohli- 260
Simon Harmer - 253
Jos Buttler - 235
Rashid Khan - 200
Kane Williamson- 188
Steve Smith- 143
Jeetan Patel- 107
Ravi Ashwin - 105
David Warner - 97
Aaron Finch-95
Joe Root - 59
Hashim Amla - 15 
Sunil Narine - 0 
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp 
George Bailey - dnp 
Quinton De Kock- dnp 
AB De Villiers- dnp 
JP Duminy - dnp 
Dean Elgar - dnp 
Ravi Jadeja - dnp 
Nathan Lyon - dnp 
Mitchell Marsh- dnp 
Shaun Marsh - dnp 

Overall

Simon Harmer - 4699
Jeetan Patel - 4233
Rashid Khan - 4019
Jos Buttler - 3713
Aaron Finch - 3343
Virat Kohli- 3309
Jofra Archer - 3181
Sunil Narine- 3131
Kane Williamson - 3094
Joe Root - 3073
Shakib Al Hasan - 2582
Ravi Ashwin - 2385
JP Duminy - 2336
Quinton de Kock - 2020
AB De Villiers- 2010
Hashim Amla - 2008
Nathan Lyon - 1833
Dean Elgar- 1686
Shaun Marsh- 1498
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
David Warner - 1257
Steve Smith - 1227
Ravi Jadeja - 1226
George Bailey - 631