Shubman Gill - The Best Cricketer of the Week

Weekly Top 5

1. Shubman Gill - 158 - Many felt that Gill's 43 & 65 for the Indians v Australia A would give him a Test berth. This did not come to pass but he wins Cricketer of the Week for the 3rd time this year. It's worth noting that Gill has 2 of the lowest scoring weeks of Weekly winners

2. Jason Holder - 140 - Another example of a losing captain doing very well for themselves. This is his highest score since the end of the IPL.

3. Virat Kohli - 118 - The starkest example of an individual player's success standing in contrast to their team's failings. Kohli ends his year with a third spot for the week. He is in tenth spot overall. Will he hold it for the last 11 days?

4. Keshav Maharaj - 110 - A month in the wilderness has not dented Maharaj's impact. A 3-fer in a rain effected game for the Dolphins sees him take 4th spot for the week. How different his year may have been without Covid.

5. Aaron Finch - 77 - Takes 5th place from one average performance and one poor one in the BBL. His average has dropped to 108.27 per week's active.

Other Movers

Glenn Maxwell - Maxwell has had a bit of a late burst of performances this year. He only scored 59 this week but moved up two places to 7th. This is his highest position on the overall table since January.

Overall Top Five

1. Babar Azam - 3082 - Questions over whether Babar plays again this year but is now looking a cert to join Simon Harmer and Glenn Maxwell in the pantheon of Cricketers of the Year.

2. Ben Stokes - 2955 - No further cricket this year for Big Ben. Second place is his. Would very likely have forced his way to the top of the South Africa series had gone ahead.

3. Joe Root - 2512 - Has Holder coming up behind him but has probably done enough to hold third spot for the year. This would reflect his highest ever year end position after being 10th in 2018 and 5th last year.

4. Jason Holder - 2444 - The only upwards mover in the top 5 this week. Despite two humiliating losses to New Zealand, Holder has cemented his place in the Top Five for the Year.

5. Aaron Finch - 2382 - Some distinctly averages BBL performance sees Finch drop a place to 5th.

Week

Shubman Gill - 158
Jason Holder- 140
Virat Kohli - 118
Keshav Maharaj- 110
Aaron Finch - 77
Marnus Labuschagne-73
Glenn Maxwell - 59
Peter Handscomb - 52
Martin Guptill - 17
Travis Head - 17
Mohammad Nabi - 14
Steve Smith - 2

Kyle Abbott - dnp
Colin Ackermann- dnp
Babar Azam - dnp
Tom Banton - dnp
Lewis Gregory - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Joe Root- dnp
Rohit Sharma - dnp
Ben Stokes- dnp

Overall

Babar Azam - 3082
Ben Stokes - 2955
Joe Root - 2512
Jason Holder- 2444
Aaron Finch - 2382
David Warner - 2290
Glenn Maxwell - 2265
Lewis Gregory - 2248
Steve Smith - 2211
Virat Kohli - 2141
Marnus Labuschagne - 2057
Simon Harmer - 1922
Shubman Gill - 1782
Martin Guptill - 1731
Keshav Maharaj - 1687
Travis Head - 1663
Mohammad Nabi - 1472
Colin Ackermann - 1435
Tom Banton - 1093
Rohit Sharma - 1035
Peter Handscomb - 715
Kyle Abbott - 14

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

David Warner - The Best Cricketer of the Week

Word on the street was that David Warner was on the out and out. From his highest position of fourth in Week 3, Warner had had 5 weeks of decline in the table culminating in last week's low of seventeenth - third from bottom. Some of this can be put down to three inactive weeks however sandwiched either side of those inactive periods was a score of just 3 points in the last ODI with India and just 4 points from the first T20 against South Africa. It is difficult to know just where to expect Warner to finish this season. His only previous showing on our list was third place in 2018 when he only played the first two and a half months of the year - however third from bottom is not indicative of his skill. This week we have seen a dynamic surge up the table and his first ever Cricketer of the Week accolade. His double half centuries in back to back T20Is sees him lurch from that low base of seventeenth into a slightly more respectable thirteenth spot. It has been an over all good week for the Australian. As well as his performances on the field, there have been signs of good things to come as he was reappointed Hyderabad's captain for the IPL. This forebodes more regular T20 games just around the corner and (perhaps) the chance to score big points. Does a top ten place beckon?

It's been quite a week for Australians with our antipodean contingent moving up a cumulative twelve places in the overall list. Two other players who have used the T20I series against South Africa as an opportunity to move up the table are Steve Smith and Aaron Finch. In a remarkable show of synchronicity, both players scored 119 points to finish in joint fifth for the week. Having never happened in the last two years of these posts, this is the second time that two players have got the exact same amount of points in a week this year. Whilst their scores were exactly the same, their performances with the bat were different. Finch, who moves from tenth place into seventh on the overall list, had one big score of 55 and a disappointing score of 14. On the other hand Steve Smith contributed with two solid contributions of 29 and 30 which saw him move back into the top 5 after two weeks in seventh spot. What this is starting to show is that Australia are forming quite the formidable top three in preparation for the World Cup. If David Warner and Aaron Finch go big as they did in the third T20, Steve Smith can then go on and act as the anchor. If the openers do not do well, Smith can step up. By the time the World Cup roles around in August I would expect to see all three batsmen in the top ten - and from there....who knows?

As we approach the end of February we need to see who has made the month their own. Only four players have made two or more weeks of solid progression up the Overall List this month. Keshav Maharaj has moved from 11th to 1st and has made progress in every week of February so he is perhaps the obvious candidate for a Cricketer of the Month award. As previously mentioned, Aaron Finch has used the T20 series against a weak South Africa side to move up the table for the last two weeks whilst Travis Head has been quietly accumulating points to move from 14th to 10th throughout February. However the player who has been an underground success on our list is Lewis Gregory who has featured for the England Lions and Peshawar throughout February and has moved up from 16th at the start of the month to eleventh this month - an improvement of 386 points. Whilst Maharaj is the obvious success of February, his reward is the top spot on the overall list. Lewis Gregory needs recognition for the sheer amount of performances he has put in -playing in all three formats of the game and all over the world.

Week

David Warner - 214
Martin Guptill- 195
Keshav Maharaj- 180
Tom Banton - 131
Aaron Finch - 119
Steve Smith - 119
Travis Head- 118
Lewis Gregory - 116
Babar Azam - 79
Jason Holder - 55
Peter Handscomb - 37
Virat Kohli- 31

Kyle Abbott - dnp
Colin Ackermann- dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Mohammad Nabi - dnp
Joe Root - dnp
Rohit Sharma - dnp
Ben Stokes - dnp

Overall

Keshav Maharaj - 1094
Martin Guptill - 1082
Ben Stokes - 1062
Steve Smith - 846
Joe Root - 829
Virat Kohli - 760
Aaron Finch - 759
Shubman Gill - 752
Marnus Labuschagne - 685
Travis Head - 681
Lewis Gregory - 667
Glenn Maxwell - 650
David Warner - 620
Mohammad Nabi - 590
Tom Banton - 543
Babar Azam - 486
Rohit Sharma - 471
Peter Handscomb - 347
Jason Holder- 167

Keshav Maharaj - The Best Cricketer of the Week

Besides the ever growing gap between Stokes and the chasing field, the top five has shifted Week to Week over the first couple of months of 2020. Stokes has now been number one on the overall list for four weeks. In his first week at top spot he had a huge lead on second place Marnus Labuschagne, in Week two and three Martin Guptill was pushing him for top spot and this week a player has come out of nowhere to challenge the England all-rounder. Keshav Maharaj is a known prospect to Stokes - and in their most recent on-field battle the South African was rather found out - however Maharaj looks something of an unstoppable force in the Momentum One Day Cup. This week he jumped from 6th place to second off the back of a solitary game where the Dolphins player bagged a half century and a Fourier against the Cape Cobras - a handy 200 points to see him surge up the table once again. At the start of February, Maharaj was in 12th position but three weeks of improvement up the table have seen him rise to 148 points of the top spot. So far in this tournament he has taken 11 wickets in 5 matches, second only to Thando Ntini who has just one more despite playing two more games. He is also coupling this with an average of over 50 with the bat. Maharaj really isn't playing games this year and is following in the footsteps of Glenn Maxwell who got to top spot last year with impressive all round performance. Stokes will not play for England again for four weeks and in that time Maharaj's Dolphins will have played at least three times. It is a very real possibility that the South African could take top spot as soon as next week - or could he be the third challenger to fade away in the style of Guptill and Labuschagne?

Now we have seen a return to long form cricket in Australia, we have seen some of our less prolific Aussies come to the fore again. The highest score from an Australian this week did not come from their T20 mauling of South Africa but instead from the more prosaic match up between South and Western Australia. Travis Head has had a mixed year; after a huge score at the back end of 2019 his performances have been variable in 2020. Never higher than 9th on the overall list, he slid as far down the league as 14th last week before 95 runs split across two innings against Western Australia saw him acquire 105 points for the week and finish fifth on the weekly list. This could easily have been at least 20 points more if he had inched over the half century threshold at least once - falling short by four runs in the first innings and a solitary run in the second. Unlucky possibly but luck has certainly been on his side already this year. This week's score is not his highest for 2020 as Head won Cricketer of the Week in Week 5 for four games in the BBL - edging out Matin Guptill thanks to sheer weight of games played. Where he gained points that week he has potentially lost some this. What is impressive is the versatility of Head; finishing in the top five for the Week twice - once for T20 cricket and once for the longest form. There is a belief that he is the sort of player that could plug a gap in the middle order of Australia's ODI side - if that comes to pass he could be a top ten prospect very easily.

Due to this being a T20 World Cup year, our list has had more of a short form focus this year than in previous. This has seen far greater number of bodies turning out for PSL franchises than we have ever had before. Peshawar is likely to be our principle focus over the next month or so as both Tom Banton and Lewis Gregory are turning out for the North-Western Pakistan franchise, however this week Banton scored a mere 13 runs and an injury picked up with the England Lions has stopped Gregory from making his debut. Instead our focus is on one of Pakistan's favourite sons, Babar Azam. Due to lack of game time Azam has been propping up the table and even his century against Bangladesh only saw him jump up a solitary spot. He will be hoping to use the PSL as a spring board up the table and has started the competition brightly with 78 for Karachi against Peshawar. This has seen him gain another place on the overall list. As it stands he is in 16th place, with a disappointing looking Tom Banton 5 points ahead of him and an inactive Rohit Sharma 64 points ahead. Another couple of decent performances will catapult Azam closer to where he should be - a firm top ten prospect.

Week

Keshav Maharaj- 200
Babar Azam - 118
Jason Holder - 112
Ben Stokes- 112
Travis Head - 105
Lewis Gregory - 85
Aaron Finch - 82
Peter Handscomb-71
Steve Smith- 65
Marnus Labuschagne- 36
Tom Banton - 23
David Warner - 14
Shubman Gill - 8
Martin Guptill- 0
Virat Kohli - 0

Kyle Abbott - dnp
Colin Ackermann - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Mohammad Nabi- dnp
Joe Root - dnp
Rohit Sharma - dnp

Overall

Ben Stokes - 1062
Keshav Maharaj - 914
Martin Guptill - 887
Joe Root - 829
Shubman Gill - 752
Virat Kohli - 729
Steve Smith - 727
Marnus Labuschagne - 685
Glenn Maxwell - 650
Aaron Finch - 640
Mohammad Nabi - 590
Travis Head - 563
Lewis Gregory - 551
Rohit Sharma - 471
Tom Banton - 412
Babar Azam - 407
David Warner - 406
Peter Handscomb - 310
Jason Holder- 112