Jos Buttler - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Very very early to have an almost full compliment of cricketers featuring in a week but only Brook, Gill and Jadeja did not play this week. Let's see our Top 5.

Weekly Top 5

1. Jos Buttler - 273 - Last year's Cricketer of the Year ended 2023 on a bit of a sour note, but is starting to look sweet again in the SA20 and is straight back into action with a weekly top score. Places him 8th Overall after three weeks.

2. Babar Azam - 253 - Pakistan are getting drubbed by New Zealand but Azam is giving it his all. You can always bank on him to get a half century and with two this week he is good value for second spot.

3. Travis Head = 179 - Provided the batting highlight of the first Test against the West Indies and is rewarded with a third place finish for the week as well as a surge up the table overall; from 11th to 9th.

4. Glenn Maxwell - 172 - Ended his BBL 13 season with some typically boisterous hitting and a final feature in the Top 5. Is now going to have a fortnight out the game before the ODIs against the West Indies.

5. Daryl Mitchell - 168 - Featured in three T20s this week and is largely here thanks to 72* in the final one. He has finished in the Top 5 two weeks in a row and will be playing throughout February.

Overall Top 5

1. Chamari Athapaththu - 478 - Becomes the first cricketer to top the overall list for the first three weeks of the year. Scored only 105 and has the pack breathing down her neck but is holding her own.

2. Babar Azam - 439 - Jumped up 4 places to 2nd this week. Only spent two weeks in the Top 5 in 2023. Will be wanting to better that in 2024.

3. Daryl Mitchell - 392 - Up a place from last week. Is rapidly becoming the fulcrum of the team. With New Zealand playing pretty consistently through until March, he could be a mainstay at the very top of our List.

4. Glenn Maxwell - 385 - Up a place for The Big Show. He is really looking on top form after his injury ravaged 2023. Is having a fortnight away from the game but should be back soon enough.

5. Aaron Hardie - 316 - Yo-yos back into the Top 5 against. After finishing third in week one, dropping down to 7th in week two, he now rounds off our weekly Top 5. His continued involvement in BBL 13 will see him continue to be amongst the points for at least one more game.

Other Movers

Two other players moved up this week. Sam Curran moved up 3 spots to finish Week 3 in 12th whilst Virat Kohli is up two to 11th.

Ones To Watch

With the second Test against the West Indies next week, Australia's new opening partnership of Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja are both tied in 15th place with 115 points.

Top 3 Average Points per Active Week

1. Babar Azam - 219.5
2. Daryl Mitchell - 196
3. Chamari Athapaththu - 159.33 (Down from 186.5)

Athapaththu's average declines the most but she still possessess the third highest average overall. Glenn Maxwell's average improves the most. He is up 21.83 points to 128.33.

Highest scorer by Format

* = New Name

Long Form = *Travis Head = 259
One Day = n/a
Short Form = *Daryl Mitchell = 312

Highest scorer by Discipline

Runs - *Babar Azam = 249
Batting Bonus - Daryll Mitchell & *Babar Azam = 60
Strike Rate - Glenn Maxwell = 150

Wickets - Chamari Athapaththu - 140
Wicket Bonus - Chamari Athapaththu - 20
Economy - Glenn Maxwell, *Travis Head, *Marnus Labuschagne and *Mitchell Marsh - 30

Fielding - *Glenn Maxwell & * Jos Buttler = 60
Fielding Bonus - Yashasvi Jaiswal & James Vince & *Daryl Mitchell & *Jos Buttler = 10

Weekly List in Full

Jos Buttler 273
Babar Azam 253
Travis Head 179
Glenn Maxwell 172
Daryl Mitchell 168
Yashasvi Jaiswal 142
Aaron Hardie 141
Moeen Ali 125
Phil Salt 112
Chamari Athapaththu 105
Sam Curran 90
Virat Kohli 79
Usman Khawaja 54
Steve Smith 43
James Vince 42
Marnus Labuschagne 31
Simon Harmer 14
Mitchell Marsh 5
Rachin Ravindra 3

Harry Brook dnp
Shubman Gill dnp
Ravindra Jadeja dnp


Overall List

1 Chamari Athapaththu 478
2 Babar Azam 439
3 Daryl Mitchell 392
4 Glenn Maxwell 385
5 Aaron Hardie 316
6 Marnus Labuschagne 298
7 James Vince 277
8 Jos Buttler 273
9 Travis Head 259
10 Yashasvi Jaiswal 240
11 Virat Kohli 147
12 Sam Curran 136
13 Mitchell Marsh 129
14 Moeen Ali 125
15 Steve Smith 115
16 Usman Khawaja 115
17 Phil Salt 112
18 Shubman Gill 109
19 Simon Harmer 14
20 Rachin Ravindra 3
21 Ravindra Jadeja 0

Chamari Athapaththu - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Top 5 after Week 1

1. Chamari Athapaththu - 159 - Rewards her inclusion in the list with a high score in her debut week. 4 wickets in a Super Smash game against Wellington Women sees her out the gate in the first week just as Conway, Jamieson, Guptil, Olivier and Buttler have before her.

2. Glenn Maxwell - 142 - A performance that ticked all the boxes in BBL 13 this week. 72 runs with the bat, 50 with the ball and 20 in the field. Can't ask for more than that.

3. Aaron Hardie - 119 - Debuts in third spot and is benefited by the fact that he played 2 games this week compared to everyone else playing the solitary T20 game or Test however with 2 scores over 30 looks a comfortable run scorer with lots of BBL 13 cricket left to play.

4. Yashasvi Jaiswal - 98 - None of the 4 Indian players who featured in the second Test against South Africa hung around long enough to really start their year well but Jaiswal boosted his 58 runs with the bat with 40 fielding points.

5. Virat Kohli - 68 - A quiet start to his return to our little game. With 58, he scored the most runs of any of the 4 Indian players on our List....but that wouldn't have been hard.

Top Players by Format

Red Ball - Yashasvi Jaiswal - 98
One Day - N/a
Short Form - Chamari Athapaththu- 159

Top Players by Discipline

Runs - Aaron Hardie - 69
Batting Bonus - n/a
Strike Rate - Aaron Hardie & Glenn Maxwell = 40

Wickets - Chamari Athapaththu - 80
Wicket Bonus - Chamari Athapaththu - 20
Economy - Glenn Maxwell - 30

Fielding - Yashasvi Jaiswal - 40
Fielding Bonus - Yashasvi Jaiswal & James Vince = 10

List In Full 

1 Chamari Athapaththu 159
2 Glenn Maxwell 142
3 Aaron Hardie 119
4 Yashasvi Jaiswal 98
5 Virat Kohli 68
6 Shubman Gill 56
7 James Vince 49
8 Ravindra Jadeja 0

Shakib Al Hasan - The Best Cricketer of the Week

Do you think it's possible to celebrate your individual success at the end of a week where your team has performed poorly? This is the quandary faced by Cricketer of the Week Shakib Al Hasan. Personally the player has picked up 314 points which sees him to the top of the table this week and also helps him overtake Simon Harmer into top spot for the year. From a team perspective, his Dhaka franchise have lost back to back for the first time in this year's competition, ruining their run of just a single loss in 7 games. The talented allrounder loves a spell of success at the start of the year. His Cricketer of the Week accolade in Week 4 of this year's completion mirrors where he won the corresponding week in 2018. The key to his success is the sheer amount of games he has played so early in the year, but with an earlier IPL and then the World Cup he could keep this pressure up. His seven wickets this week also helped him to be the first player in the BPL to claim 100 wickets - a continuation of players on our list performing disproportionately better in their home T20 tournament than elsewhere. 

I'll hold my hands up and say that calling Kuldeep Yadav inconsistent last week was a mistake. Instead I would now like to say he is consistently inconsistent. The last three weeks has seen him go from top spot, to failing to register a point and being dropped from the team and then last week to finishing in third place and reclaiming a place in the top five overall. To add to this consistency dilemma, his two performances against New Zealand have both been consistently similar. He bowled ten overs in both games, he claimed four wickets in both games, he leaked only six runs more in the second game than he did the first. Spinners need to find themselves a bit of rhythm in order to regularly get good figures and Yadav is being allowed to find that rhythm in New Zealand. He is amazingly precocious for a 24 year old . We heap plaudits on Virat Kohli for the young age at which he breaks records, but today Yadav drew equal with Anil Kumble's record for four or more wickets in ODI internationals outside Asia - and he did it in 76 fewer games. No mean feat in an era purported to be batter friendly. He really is one to watch. 

People have been pouring praise on Callum Ferguson's sumptuous 113 off 53 balls for the Sydney Thunder against Perth this week...and if we awarded points for tenacity, grit, style and flair, Ferguson would be streets ahead of Shakib. It up there with Marlon Samuels' display in 2012 and Mike Hussey's 60 off 24 as one of the finest T20 batting displays I have ever seen. The closest we do get to awarding players for their showmanship is the points allocated for Strike Rate - it is a rare treat to award 40 points but Ferguson feels like he deserves even more for his strike rate of 213. This is no flash in the pan for the Sydney captain, as he also bagged a half century off 36 balls in the previous game against the Melbourne Renegades. It seems like he has felt he can really let loose now that Jos Buttler has left for international duties. It seems fitting that Ferguson is our biggest mover on the overall table this week - leaping from 16th place last week to seventh. With another five games for the Sydney Thunder in this seemingly unending BBL, we may see Ferguson really rack up some points in this form. 

Week

Shakib Al Hasan - 314
Callum Ferguson - 275
Kuldeep Yadav- 260
Shreyas Iyer - 180
Rohit Sharma - 137
Kane Williamson - 134
Virat Kohli - 98 
Duanne Olivier - 70
Joe Burns - 45
Rashid Khan - 25
Glenn Maxwell - 20

Mohammad Abbas - dnp 
Jonny Bairstow- dnp 
Jos Buttler - dnp 
Shubman Gill - dnp 
Simon Harmer - dnp 
Jack Leach- dnp 
Jeetan Patel - dnp 
Joe Root- dnp 
Ben Stokes - dnp 

Shai Hope - ytp 
Morne Morkel - ytp 
Abdur Razzak- ytp 
Wayne Parnell - ytp 

Overall 

Shakib Al Hasan - 779
Simon Harmer - 500
Duanne Olivier - 491
Kuldeep Yadav - 483
Rohit Sharma - 402
Glenn Maxwell - 396
Callum Ferguson - 381
Kane Williamson - 366
Virat Kohli- 334
Joe Root- 288
Rashid Khan - 287
Mohammad Abbas - 260
Shreyas Iyer - 180
Ben Stokes - 166
Jonny Bairstow - 142
Joe Burns - 137
Jos Buttler - 131
Shubman Gill - 129
Jeetan Patel - 91
Jack Leach - 65
Shai Hope - ytp 
Morne Morkel - ytp 
Wayne Parnell - ytp 
Abdur Razzak- ytp