The Cricket List Top Ten of 2020

 1. Babar Azam

Score: 3082
Cricketer of the Weeks – 5
Average score per active week – 140.09 (6th)
Highest Score – 329: A phenomenal score of run-making for Central Punjab in National T20 Cup


Fought Stokes tooth and nail for the last third of the season but finishes on top.

2. Ben Stokes
Score: 2955
Cricketer of the Weeks – 5
Average score per active week – 164.17 (4th)
Highest Score – 464: The highest score of anyone this year came in the second Test against the West Indies.


Was in prime form during that belated form. Second seems harsh.

3. Jason Holder
Score: 2596
Cricketer of the Weeks – 2
Average score per active week – 129.8 (7th)
Highest Score – 271: The CPL, so soon after the tour of England, helped boost the West Indian's total.


A late bloomer but has rocketed up the List in the last 1/3 of the year

4. Joe Root
Score: 2280
Cricketer of the Weeks – 3
Average score per active week – 147.76 (5th)
Highest Score – 364: Electric form in the yellow of Yorkshire saw him get his highest score in the T20 Blast.


4th represents the highest year end total for Root in The Cricket List

5. Aaron Finch
Score: 2491
Cricketer of the Weeks – 0
Average score per active week – 103.79 (16th)
Highest Score – 250: The same week as Maxwell

Finch has played more cricket this week than anyone else on The List - this has helped his placing.

6. Glenn Maxwell
Score: 2469
Cricketer of the Weeks – 3
Average score per active week – 117.57 (11th)
Highest Score – 284: Just earlier this month in the ODI series with India.


Last year's champion finishes just outside the Top 5. A great late year burst of ODI and BBL form.

7. Lewis Gregory
Score: 2398
Cricketer of the Weeks – 2
Average score per active week – 126.21 (8th)
Highest Score – 328: Thanks to a Bob Willis Trophy performance for Somerset


Another player that has played a lot this year. His average per week has improved in the last 1/3

8. David Warner
Score: 2290
Cricketer of the Weeks – 2
Average score per active week – 114.5 (12th)
Highest Score – 214: Double half centuries in back to back T20Is vs South Africa.


Injury and inactive weeks held Warner back from a higher berth. Was 5th just 4 weeks ago.

9. Steve Smith
Score: 2239
Cricketer of the Weeks – 2
Average score per active week – 97.35 (18th)
Highest Score – 316: A whirlwind week in Jan that started in India & ended with 2 BBL performances


A below par year for Smith. Bolstered by the second most active weeks of anybody

10. Marnus Labuschagne
Score: 2143
Cricketer of the Weeks – 1
Average score per active week – 126.06 (9th)
Highest Score – 404: The third highest score of the year courtesy of 215 against New Zealand.


A quieter year than 2019 sees Marnus beat Kohli to the Top Ten by 2 points.

The Rest

Virat Kohli - 2145

Simon Harmer - 1922
Shubman Gill - 1882
Keshav Maharaj - 1861
Martin Guptill - 1811
Travis Head - 1728
Mohammad Nabi - 1551
Colin Ackermann - 1435
Tom Banton - 1093
Rohit Sharma - 1035
Peter Handscomb - 750
Kyle Abbott - 14

Lewis Gregory - The Best Cricketer of the Week

Lewis Gregory was not supposed to be the runaway star of the Bob Willis Trophy final. Simon Harmer has outperformed him in all metrics up until last weekend. Harmer's 38 wickets across the competition was eight more than second placed Craig Overton and 20 more than Gregory's. Harmer's form has seen him win Cricketer of the Week three times in the eight weeks of the tournament. The first was a huge 453 point haul where he took 14 wickets across a single match against Surrey. Over the last eight weeks Harmer has managed to top our list of average points per active week with 254.57 - 54.21 more than second placed Ben Stokes. In comparison, Lewis Gregory has only won Cricketer of the Week once this year. This fell in February where his 185 points playing for the England Lions gave him the ninth lowest winning score since the list started. On his return from England duty, his average points per active game week was 118.31 - 190.89 fewer than Harmer's. On top of all this - Somerset lost.....well drew....but lost. But that is enough of what should have been because it was Gregory who blew Harmer away to get his second Cricketer of the Week accolade. And you can't begrudge him it. Since returning from international duty, Gregory has gone from strength to strength. From being the seventh lowest in terms of points per week he is now eight highest on 132.88. This has seen the Somerset player get within 78 points of second placed Ben Stokes. This being said, Gregory is now going to have a period away from the game whilst Stokes is currently on a plane to join up with Rajasthan. Gregory's place in the top three might be in jeopardy as the IPL continues but the last month has salvaged his year. Rather than him being a player that has played a lot of average cricket over the year, his epitaph might be that he's had a pretty decent domestic year.

By all accounts Colin Ackermann is another player who has made hay in the delayed English summer. His average points over the last 8 weeks stands at 179.38 - enough to see him third on the table. He has also burst upwards after bnot featuring on the list to eventually coming to land in ninth place. The last two T20 Blast performances helped him to creep into that top ten position. Three wickets out of nowhere against Lancashire and Nottinghamshire saw Leicestershire extend their run in the competition. It also saw Ackermann add another 322 points to his total. Across the course of the competition, Ackermann scored 682 points. This is 219 more than Simon Harmer managed. His average points per game across this time was 75.78. This is genuinely rather than impressive. If we were to correlate points to the influence a player has in the game (which isn't an exact science) we could argue that Ackermann has been more impressive than any of our IPL players. As we stand Smith's average per game is 70.67 with with Sharma second on 67.5. This is not a like for like comparison and if Mohammad Nabi or Jason Holder had played more we would have a fairer comparison. It is safe to say that Ackermann is an influential T20 presence. He is another one of these players that it is hard to envisage playing too much more cricket this year. Unless the Netherlands have play over the next three months, Ackermann's total of 1935 might be his final score.

Whoever you look at in our list of IPL players one word springs to mind. Inconsistency. There is only one player who has steadily improved as the competition has gone on and that is David Warner. This can largely be put down to the fact that the Hyderabad opener has an incredibly poor game scoring 6 against Bangalore. Like all good competitors he got off the canvas and got his highest points in the tournament in the very next game. He scored 66 points against Kolkata - 36 of which were from runs. This saw him averaging 36 points per game. After this came 45 runs and 65 points against Delhi - bumping his average points up to 45.67. Yesterday's game against Chennai was something of a backward step in terms of runs (28) and points (48) but his average went up a jot to 46.25. In the grand scheme of things Wanrer's performance are average but consistently improving. In tournaments like the IPL this is the recipe for success. Looking at the names above Warner for total points and average points, they are up and down like yo-yos. Sharma's average points went up by 63 points before dropping 23 and then going back up to 67.5. Smith started very strongly but has had a sharp dip in form. Whereas Warner is quietly improving. If Warner can do anything quietly. He got the third highest score of anyone this week. He is also now 92 points away from re entering the top ten for the first time since lockdown. There is quite a bunch of antipodean IPL players in front of him in the form of Maxwell and Smith but you'd put your money on slow and steady winning the race.

Week


Lewis Gregory - 260
Shubman Gill - 187
David Warner - 179
Colin Ackermann - 153
Simon Harmer - 140
Rohit Sharma - 138
Steve Smith- 103
Aaron Finch- 92
Glenn Maxwell - 24
Mohammad Nabi- 21
Virat Kohli - 7


Kyle Abbott- dnp
Babar Azam - dnp
Tom Banton - dnp
Martin Guptill- dnp
Peter Handscomb - dnp
Travis Head - dnp
Jason Holder - dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Joe Root - dnp
Ben Stokes - dnp


Overall


Joe Root - 2286
Ben Stokes - 2204
Lewis Gregory - 2126
Simon Harmer - 1922
Babar Azam - 1835
Jason Holder- 1691
Aaron Finch - 1634
Mohammad Nabi - 1458
Colin Ackermann - 1435
Glenn Maxwell - 1377
Steve Smith - 1372
Marnus Labuschagne - 1337
David Warner - 1285
Martin Guptill - 1243
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Tom Banton - 1048
Shubman Gill - 946
Travis Head - 901
Virat Kohli - 831
Rohit Sharma - 741
Peter Handscomb - 383

Colin Ackermann - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

That the IPL started this week is going to be superfluous to this week's post. This is not due to the snobbish high-minded attitude I have seen from many on social media. Instead it is because some of the biggest movers up the list can are found in the T20 Blast this week. The best performance of any player over the last 7 days came not in the sweltering heat of Dubai but instead under the watery sunshine of Manchester. At the start of last Sunday, Leicestershire didn't stand much of a chance of progressing. They needed to beat Lancashire and hope that other results would fall in their favour. Halfway through the Lancashire innings it looked a fait accompli as Alex Davies and Steven Croft were in full control. That was when Ackermann took charge. Ackermann's 2020 campaign will not be as well remembered as last year's where he claimed a record seven wickets against Warwickshire however he has still looked comfortable. In comparison to his fellow All Rounder Simon Harmer he scored 114 more runs at a better average strike rate. With the ball he gained exactly the same points for his economy rate and was only one wicket behind the Essex player. Despite playing two fewer games, the Leicestershire captain scored 65 points more. His effect was never felt more than in the 16th over where he claimed three wickets in four balls to turn the game on it's head. He finished with figures of 3-18 to go alongside his 28 ball 29 with the bat. Ironically it was the team that he humiliated last year, Warwickshire, who Leicestershire pipped to the post for qualification. Ackermann averages 75.57 points per game played and has at least one further game in the competition. If he achieves at least his average score against Nottinghamshire he will move up two places and into the top ten. The issue is that, like Simon Harmer, this is seemingly his last Cricket of the year. The Saffer needs to make hay while the sun shines as the clouds are drawing in.

Joe Root's return was a belated boost for Yorkshire's unsuccessful Blast campaign. The England Test captain has been determined to prove his point to the England selectors that he still has a role in the shortest form of the game. Anyone that has come up against the White Rose whilst he was playing would struggle to disagree. Root has the third highest average for runs in the competition with 69.5 across his five games and has also chipped in with some wickets to boost his score. Whilst he did not help to pull Yorkshire's hopes out the fire he has pushed his agenda for England. As well as this he has also muscled his way to the top of our overall list. Thus ends Ben Stokes 10 week reign at the top of the list. When Stokes signed off from England duty to be with his father who was in ill health, the gap between himself and Root was 774 points. At the time of his departure to New Zealand, Stokes was averaging 200.36 points per active week. At the same time, Root's average was 135.3. Even after this spell of exceptional T20 form, the Yorkshireman's average is only 152.4. In this very unusual year, Root's ascension to the head of the table is even more reliant on the inactivity of others.

Lewis Gregory is our final Englishman to have made positive steps for his County. Much like Root, Gregory was under baked for his national team but returned to Somerset to look the real deal once more. In September, where he has just played for Somerset, Gregory has picked up 724 points. Whilst with England he gained 323 from four intra squad games and three ODIs. There is nothing revelatory here. The standard of batsmen he faces with the ball and bowlers he faces with the bat will be of a lower standard in the Blast than internationally. However the difference is stark. His position in the overall list has hugely improved in this time too. Just over two months ago Gregory reached his lowest overall place of 12th. This week he moves into the top three for the first time. As I have written before, a lot of this can be put down to the fact that Gregory has played the second most Cricket of anyone on our list. This week was his 15th active week out of 37 - however his average scores per week have also markedly improved. As little as a fortnight ago he had the seventh lowest weekly score at 118.31. His run in the Blast and the Bob Willis Trophy has seen him improve by four places - his current score is 124.4 per week. This places him higher than luminaries such as Aaron Finch (118.62) and Babar Azam (114.69). Yes, Gregory's third place position is flattering - but he has made a huge improvement.

Week


Colin Ackermann- 169
Rohit Sharma - 132
Lewis Gregory - 130
Joe Root- 130
Steve Smith - 109
Aaron Finch- 89
Babar Azam - 82
Simon Harmer - 62
Virat Kohli- 35
Glenn Maxwell - 26
Shubman Gill - 7
David Warner - 6


Tom Banton - dnp
Martin Guptill- dnp
Peter Handscomb- dnp
Travis Head- dnp
Jason Holder- dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Mohammad Nabi- dnp
Ben Stokes - dnp


Overall


Joe Root - 2286
Ben Stokes - 2204
Lewis Gregory - 1866
Babar Azam - 1835
Simon Harmer - 1782
Jason Holder- 1691
Aaron Finch - 1542
Mohammad Nabi - 1437
Glenn Maxwell - 1353
Marnus Labuschagne - 1337
Colin Ackermann - 1282
Steve Smith - 1269
Martin Guptill - 1243
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
David Warner - 1106
Tom Banton - 1048
Travis Head - 901
Virat Kohli - 824
Shubman Gill - 759
Rohit Sharma - 603
Peter Handscomb - 383

Simon Harmer - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

When it comes to weeks where there is County cricket, Simon Harmer is always expected to claim Cricketer of the Week. And so it has come to pass this week. Our all time highest point scorer registered another 300+ score this week (his eight ever) and claimed Cricketer of the Week (his third of the year and eighteenth ever). When it comes to the red ball competitions Harmer is king. However he is starting to become exposed in relation to his T20 game. Despite that magnificent T20 win last year for Essex, Harmer has now had two back to back failures. First the 2019 Mzansi Super League and now this year's T20 Blast. The extent of Harmer's lack of form can be compared to another player from our list. Colin Ackermann is built in the Harmer mound - and by comparing the two we can have some idea of how Harmer racks up. In terms of raw totals, Harmer is in charge. Since the start of the tournament Harmer had picked up 230 points compared to Ackermann's 158. But this is flawed as Ackermann has played far fewer games. Before last night's fixtures, Harmer had the lead on average points per game too. His 57.5 bettered Ackermann's 20 from two games. However last night, Harmer got a score of zero against Surrey whilst Ackermann got 118 against Yorkshire. This meant that Ackermann's average is now 52.67 compared to Harmer's 46. In terms of T20 cricket their is little difference between the two. Yet such is Harmer's red ball prowess that he has just moved into fourth position whilst Ackermann is in 16th . What may be concerning is that Essex have one final Bob Willis Trophy game and a limited number of Blast games. After that (as far as I can see) Harmer's year is over. He will need to get a characteristically huge score against Somerset in the final to cement his top ten place in this year's list.

The T20 leg of Australia's tour of England is over and the ODIs have begun. Thus far there have been two big beneficiaries representative of both of those formats. In T20 it was Aaron Finch that impressed the most out of the five featured players on our list. He outperformed in all relevant categories except for fielding where Smith prevailed. In the run column (the only one that really matters in T20) he was way ahead with 125. Ironically Warner was in second place despite the fact he only scored a run in the first T20 before getting a duck and not featuring in the final game. This has seen Finch move up three places on the overall list to eighth spot. With a change of format, comes a change of form for Finch. After yesterday's opening ODI, Finch has found himself out performed by two other players: Marnus Labuschagne and, most notably, Glenn Maxwell. Maxwell's T20 haul of 123 looks decent - but only 26.83% of those came from the bat. He certainly addressed that concern yesterday. His score of 77 plus three contributions in the field puts him in first place out of the five players who featured in that game. This performance has seen the Victorian move up two places into 13th. If he keeps this T20 form up for the rest of the series and into the IPL, he could be a challenging for a top five berth soon enough.


Once upon a time you could be safe in the knowledge that most players on our list would feature in a similar number of games. Corona has put a stop to this. This has seen a huge disparity in terms of active game weeks in 2020 - from 16 out of 35 to 0 in the case of Kyle Abbott. One of the chiefs beneficiaries of this is Lewis Gregory. The Somerset all-Rounder has had a poor year. His chances in the ODI squad looks to have come to an end after a series of poor performances. However he has just moved into the top five of the year - above much more illustrious company. The reason for this is the sheer number of games that Gregory has played. In 2020 Gregory has been active thirteen out of 35 weeks. This puts him in joint third with Joe Root - only Babar Azam with 14 and Tom Banton with 16 have more. When you divide his total score by those active weeks, it does not make pretty reading for Gregory. His average active weekly score of 118.31 puts him in a lowly 16th position. So Gregory has played a lot and played averagely across the year and moves into the top five. There are other players that this reflects even worse on. Banton is another player who has not built up on their 2019 promises. This is shown in his average. He is second bottom with 65.50. Peter Handscomb is one below him with the lowest average score of 47.88 from his eight weeks. The bottom three is rounded off by Virat Kohli with 87.67 across nine weeks. The top of the table is to be expected. Simon Harmer is number one with an average weekly score of 309.2 with Ben Stokes in second with 200.36 in his 11 active weeks. Colin Ackermann should be very pleased with his weekly active average of 182.20 which rounds off the top 3.


That list in full:


Harmer 309.2
Stokes 200.36
Ackermann 182.2
Holder 153.73
Root 147.15
Maharaj 146.25
Nabi 143.7
Maxwell 143.5
Labuschagne 139.89
Head 128.71
Gill 125.33
Guptill 124.3
Finch 120.73
Warner 118.67
Gregory 118.31
Sharma 117.75
Smith 105.45
Azam 94.64
Kohli 87.67
Banton 65.5
Handscomb 47.88
Abbott n/a


Week


Simon Harmer - 329
Lewis Gregory - 328
Glenn Maxwell - 219
Colin Ackermann - 186
Aaron Finch - 155
Jason Holder- 119
David Warner - 114
Mohammad Nabi - 111
Marnus Labuschagne- 41
Steve Smith - 33
Tom Banton - 14
Joe Root - 1
Babar Azam - 0


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- 1691
Simon Harmer - 1546
Lewis Gregory - 1538
Babar Azam - 1535
Mohammad Nabi - 1437
Aaron Finch - 1328
Marnus Labuschagne - 1259
Martin Guptill - 1243
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Steve Smith - 1160
Glenn Maxwell - 1148
David Warner - 1068
Tom Banton - 1048
Colin Ackermann -911
Travis Head - 901
Virat Kohli - 787
Shubman Gill - 752
Rohit Sharma - 471
Peter Handscomb - 383