Phil Salt - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Weekly Top 5

1. Phil Salt - 197 - If Salt played in the Carribean every week he might put on Lara like figures. He finishes in first place this week for the second time in 2024. He also moves up to 7th place overall; his highest position in 2 months. He has never been higher.

2. Jos Buttler - 2261 - 20 weeks out of cricket ended disappointingly for Buttler with a golden duck in his first innings. Made that up with 87 more runs in the other two games....fairly unevenly spread mind.

3. Daryl Mitchell - 149 - Not gargantuan figures for Mitchell on his return to domestic cricket; especially when you consider 40% of this came from his bowling figures from a meagre 14 overs. All the points count though.

4. Chamari Athapaththu - 142 - Not producing blistering performances in the WBBL but sheer weight of matches helps put her in a fairly low scoring Top 5 this week.

5. Glenn Maxwell - 84 - The runt of the Top 5 litter this week is Maxwell who scores 58 points fewer than fourth place. Is especially lucky to be here considering he scored a big fat zero in the final ODI against Pakistan.

Overall Top 5

1. Chamari Athapaththu - 4460 - With every passing week of WBBL action she puts herself further away from second place. Her gap is now up to 490. The only gap bigger is between Smith and Khawaja at the other end of the table.

2. James Vince - 3970 - About to enter his final week of inactivity before some rare T10 action. Is very well insulated in silver place; he has 490 above him and 424 below him.

3. Travis Head - 3546 - His fourth week inactive is his joint longest period of fallow time. Next week's fifth inactive week will be his last.

4. Sam Curran - 3406 - 71 points this week narrowed the gap on third place to 167 but that isn't nearly enough to broach a Top Three that is looking pretty untouchable with a month of the competition left.

5. Babar Azam - 3239 - Only 61 points this week but that makes the gap between him and Labuschagne very very very tight instead of just very very very very tight. 67 points separate.

Other Movers

A mere 27 points for Wellington in the Plunket Shield was enough to see Rachin Ravindra breach the Top 10 again.

Top Three Averages

1. Chamari Athapaththu - 171.54 (Down from 172.72)
2. Jos Buttler - 133 (Up from 131.5)
3. Ravindra Jadeja - 132.39.

For the first time in record two players have decreased by the same amount. Aaron Hardie & Rachin Ravindra are both down by 2.97 to 74.36 & 104.22 respectively. Phil Salt is up the most to breach the 100 point a week mark.

Highest scorer by Format

Long Form = Simon Harmer = 2235
One Day = Chamari Athapaththu = 946
Short Form = Chamari Athapaththu- 3514

Highest scorer by Discipline

*=New Name

Runs - James Vince - 2390
Batting Bonus - Travis Head = 380
Strike Rate - Travis Head & * Phil Salt = 790

Wickets - Simon Harmer = 1180
Wicket Bonus - Ravindra Jadeja = 250
Economy - Simon Harmer - 680

Fielding – James Vince = 490
Fielding Bonus - James Vince - 50

Weekly List in Full

Phil Salt 197
Jos Buttler 157
Daryl Mitchell 149
Chamari Athapaththu 142
Glenn Maxwell 84
Sam Curran 71
Babar Azam 61
Rachin Ravindra 27
Aaron Hardie 12

Simon Harmer dnp
James Vince dnp
Moeen Ali dnp
Travis Head dnp
Mitchell Marsh dnp
Harry Brook dnp
Ravindra Jadeja dnp
Shubman Gill dnp
Steve Smith dnp
Usman Khawaja dnp
Marnus Labuschagne dnp
Yashasvi Jaiswal dnp
Virat Kohli dnp

Overall List In Full

1 Chamari Athapaththu 4460
2 James Vince 3970
3 Travis Head 3546
4 Sam Curran 3406
5 Babar Azam 3239
6 Marnus Labuschagne 3172
7 Phil Salt 3053
8 Ravindra Jadeja 3045
9 Yashasvi Jaiswal 2981
10 Rachin Ravindra 2814
11 Simon Harmer 2808
12 Harry Brook 2780
13 Moeen Ali 2727
14 Glenn Maxwell 2383
15 Shubman Gill 2361
16 Jos Buttler 2261
17 Virat Kohli 2099
18 Daryl Mitchell 1937
19 Mitchell Marsh 1685
20 Aaron Hardie 1636
21 Steve Smith 1503
22 Usman Khawaja 998

Babar Azam - The Best Cricketer of the Week

Movers

Lewis Gregory - 122 - The Somerset man was long overdue an impressive England performance. He was the second highest points scorer on The List that played in yesterday's intra-squad game. He moves back up to fourth and overtakes Jason Holder.

Martin Guptill - 54 - The Auckland player has had a modest start to the Plunket Shield but he is moving back up The List again. He has overtaken Mohammad Nabi into 16th.

Weekly Top Five

1. Babar Azam - 238 - The Pakistan captain's T20 form sees him top the Weekly List once more. He has finished in top spot 5 times - the joint most with Ben Stokes.

2. Joe Root - 147 - The England Test captain has been out in the cold for a while - inexplicably becoming the Cricketer to have not played for the longest time this week - but returned with 77 and a wicket in the England Intra Squad game.

3. Lewis Gregory - 122 - Needed a good game to impress England selectors before the South Africa series. Three wickets represents his best reward in the shortest form for some while.

4. Ben Stokes - 70 - Seems an age since we last saw Stokes in England colours and 70 points overall is a modest total for his return. It is enough for fourth spot.

5. Martin Guptill - 54 - Another modest score for the Auckland man but enough to see him finish fifth for the week in what has been a low scoring week.

Yearly Top Five

1. Babar Azam - 3082 - Extends his lead at the top of the table to 283 points. This is his second consecutive week in first place after managing just one week five weeks ago.

2. Ben Stokes - 2799 - Back in action after a week's rest that saw him drop into second. He has not managed to regain top spot but has the South Africa series to try and push for the top of The List.

3. Joe Root - 2427 - back in action this week after seven weeks away. When he last played he was in top spot and has subsequently slipped to third. How high can he get before the end of the year?

4. Lewis Gregory - 2248 - Moves up a spot this week thanks to three wickets in the England intra squad game. His average active week score of 132.24 - a testament to the fact that he has played lots of slightly above average cricket this year.

5. Jason Holder - 2147 - Just the one week in fourth spot for Holder as he drops back down to fifth spot. He only has a 79 point lead on David Warner but will be back in action for the West Indies this week.

Week

Babar Azam - 238
Joe Root - 147
Lewis Gregory - 122
Ben Stokes - 70
Martin Guptill - 54
Tom Banton - 10

Kyle Abbott - dnp
Colin Ackermann- dnp
Aaron Finch- dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Peter Handscomb- dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Travis Head- dnp
Jason Holder - dnp
Virat Kohli- dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Mohammad Nabi - dnp
Rohit Sharma - dnp
Steve Smith - dnp
David Warner - dnp

Overall

Babar Azam - 3082
Ben Stokes - 2799
Joe Root - 2427
Lewis Gregory - 2248
Jason Holder- 2147
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
Martin Guptill - 1510
Mohammad Nabi - 1458
Colin Ackermann - 1435
Tom Banton - 1076
Rohit Sharma - 1035
Peter Handscomb - 617

Shubman Gill - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Some might say that Shubman Gill has snatched Cricketer of the Week worthier performances. Stokes scored the second highest points total of the IPL against Punjab to get 150 points. Warner got the third highest against Delhi earlier in the week. Critics (and Gill has a lot of them) will also point to the fact that Gill is one of only two players to have played twice this week. And yet, they may say, he still got the third lowest total for a Cricketer of the Week in the history of us doing this. However for all the stick that Gill has been getting in this tournament he has been one of the most consistent players. His average points per game speaks to that. Gill's current average is 54.15 - the fourth highest overall and third for players that have featured in every game. Averages don't tell the full story though. One must look at individual performances. If you split all performances by our list members in this year's IPL into thirds you automatically get a series of strong performances (61 points or more), poor performances (18 points or fewer) and average performances. When you compare the five players that have played in all fixtures (Gill, Kohli, Maxwell, Smith and Warner), Gill is joint lowest for poor performances. His 7 points against Mumbai and 1 against Bangalore represent his low water mark. The main criticism of Gill is his pedestrian strike rate in the Powerplay. This is not borne out in comparison to our Listed cricketers. Overall he has the second most Strike Rate points of any of ten IPL players. 170 of his 704 points in the competition come from Strike Rate - only David Warner with 190 has higher. There have only been four games out of the thirteen Gill has played where he hasn't picked up points for Strike Rate . Two of those were due to him not collecting the 20 runs he needed to qualify. Gill's week has been buoyed up by inclusion in India's Test squad for the eagerly anticipated tour of Australia. The longest format suits Gill better as it is his more natural style of play. If can jump 6 places in the IPL - a tournament for which he is not well suited - who knows what he can achieve in the longest form.

Another strong IPL performance this week came from David Warner. Last week I called Warner Mr Consistent; suggesting that he wasn't blowing the roof off of innings in the way that he is capable. He then immediately got the fourth highest match point total of the IPL with 136 against Delhi. This sees him move up to sixth place - a mere 36 points off Simon Harmer and a place in the top five. That quickfire 66, coupled with Kohli's disappointing score of 9 against Mumbai, now sees the Hyderabad captain almost home and hosed in terms of overall points. The three contenders are Warner with 792 points, Gill with 704 and Kohli now lagging behind with 658. There are obviously huge question marks around progression for Hyderabad which may hold Warner back. This being said, Warner's superior average points per game of 66 would suggest to me that regardless of progression he is a force to be reckon with. Gill has one more game before the knock outs. He would have to score way above his average to eat into the 88 point deficit. Despite the fact that Kohli now has a huge 134 point gulf to fill, Bangalore are just about guaranteed to progress. This means that Kohli can expect to bank 164 points - working on his average of 54.83. This means that, going in to the knockouts, we can forecast Wee Davey to be 156 points ahead of Kohli - but Virat has that extra game. So....in short....who knows. Exciting eh?

Leaving the glitz of the IPL behind we've seen antipodean cricket kick into life over the last fortnight. One person who'll benefit from this is Martin Guptill. There's a man who needs to be looking on the bright side of life. If any of our Cricketers had the right to feel aggrieved about cricket's suspension then Guptill is the one with the best claim. When the world stopped, the New Zealander had enjoyed a three week stretch as the top of our overall list. He was 67 points ahead of Keshav Maharaj and had 115 on Ben Stokes in third. And then nothing...until July when cricket restarted...in England. No opportunity to play County Championship cricket for Martin who was stuck in New Zealand. Meanwhile Stokes went from strength to strength. The England allrounder won the first three Cricketers of the Week after the resumption. When Guptill scored his first points in the Plunket Shield last week he was the third to last Cricketer to restart after lockdown. Only Peter Handscomb and Maharaj still waiting it out. Between him turning out for New Zealand in Sydney in March and last week's Auckland game his 115 point lead on Stokes turned into a 1052 point deficit. Rather than top spot, the New Zealander found himself in 15th. Not to be dissuaded though, he has gone back to doing what he does best - scoring points. He has finished fourth in terms of weekly points for the last two weeks and has moved back up to thirteenth place. With New Zealand seemingly a safe haven from the pandemic, how good could Guptill's Summer get?

Week


Shubman Gill - 153
Ben Stokes- 150
David Warner - 136
Martin Guptill- 88
Steve Smith - 61
Glenn Maxwell - 26
Jason Holder - 20
Babar Azam- 19
Virat Kohli - 9


Kyle Abbott - dnp
Colin Ackermann- dnp
Tom Banton- dnp
Aaron Finch - dnp
Lewis Gregory- dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Peter Handscomb- dnp
Travis Head- dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Mohammad Nabi - dnp
Joe Root- dnp
Rohit Sharma- dnp


Overall


Ben Stokes - 2701
Babar Azam - 2319
Joe Root - 2286
Lewis Gregory - 2126
Simon Harmer - 1922
David Warner - 1886
Jason Holder- 1846
Aaron Finch - 1829
Steve Smith - 1667
Marnus Labuschagne - 1594
Glenn Maxwell - 1565
Mohammad Nabi - 1458
Shubman Gill - 1456
Martin Guptill - 1456
Virat Kohli - 1447
Colin Ackermann - 1435
Travis Head - 1249
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Tom Banton - 1066
Rohit Sharma - 913
Peter Handscomb - 383

Virat Kohli - The Best Cricketer of the Week

Our list shows no bias. Batsmen are dealt with in the same way as bowlers. The Test favourite is on an equal playing field to the T20 mercenary. One thing that you can be sure of is that if you score two centuries in a week, you are going to be claiming top spot. Virat Kohli, this week's winner, has not claimed the title as many times as you would have thought. This is only his fifth time at the pinnacle of our list. Out of his previous four table-topping performances three have been whilst representing Bangalore. The other? Well, that was for a week where he scored two hundreds in two ODIs against West Indies. To pull off that feat once is a great achievement - to do so twice shows the man is a true ODI legend. As well as taking his inaugural Cricketer of the Week accolade for 2019, he also climbs into the overall top five for the first time this year - quite an achievement when you consider he has been inactive for 40% of gameweeks. He finds himself cheek by jowel with his old enemy from 2018. Joe Root is just in front of him in fourth place. The two captains spent all of 2018 in a dog fight - and with just 95 points between them we look set for a similar battle this time out. 

It was just a matter of time as to when Shakib Al Hasan would lose his overall top spot - and it has taken rather longer than many would have thought. Three weeks ago it seemed like Ben Stokes was going to overtake the Bangladesh captain but a subsequent dip in form and a break from the game left the field open for Glenn Maxwell. Last week he trailed Shakib by a solitary point but now has a lead of 150. Strangely enough a wicket was the way that Maxwell initially eased into top spot however he then followed that up with 51 runs for Australia in two ODIs against India. Again we have seen an extension of the rule I set out last week: If Maxwell scores big Australia win. Whilst the performances of Usman Khawaja and Aaron Finch would have caught the eye more, 47 off 31 balls for Maxwell continued to push the envelope for the Aussies in Friday's game. The stellar run of form that has seen Maxwell move up our overall table has also seen him move up the batting order for his national team. Starting this series at 7, he came in at first drop for yesterday's ODI. Perhaps an acknowledgment of his big hitting prowess. 

This week has seen two of our favourites hope to turn over a new leaf in 2019 by displaying something a little different to what we have seen from them thus far. Last year Rashid Khan's party trick was getting wickets in clusters and backing that up with explosive batting. So far we have seen him struggle to combine these facets of his game. Sometimes getting one, rarely getting two, oftentimes getting none. Even this week, where he got his highest score of the year and claimed second place on our weekly table, he picked up 50 economy points but just three wickets against the comparatively fragile batsmen of Ireland. Even his approach to batting seems markedly different. For someone whose ODI batting average is 99.86, to see Rashid grinding out 52 off 58 balls batting at number nine is odd to say the least. I have often speculated that Rashid is trying to adapt himself into something of an allrounder- perhaps he used this game to practice a new approach to his batting. Another player that showed us something different was Jeetan Patel. Last year's third place finisher has began the year out of sorts. Last week he was in the bottom five of all contributors and only finds himself one better this week despite getting 149 - by far his biggest total of the year. This is largely thanks to a stunning cameo of 20 off 11 balls with the bat - something almost unheard of from the Kiwi. Patel is usually a player associated with combining large hauls of wickets with economies regularly under 4. So far this year he is struggling with both. Against Canterbury he broke one of these hoodoos and managed to sort out his economy but we still await the Patel who can gut a batting order. Both Patel and Khan were in the mix all the way through 2018, if they keep up the form they have shown this week they could be working up the league in no time. 

Week 

Virat Kohli- 319
Rashid Khan - 210
Kuldeep Yadav- 183
Jonny Bairstow - 160
Glenn Maxwell - 151
Jeetan Patel - 149
Shreyas Iyer - 118
Joe Root - 105
Mohammad Abbas - 70
Callum Ferguson - 68
Abdur Razzak - 51
Joe Burns - 48
Shai Hope - 43
Rohit Sharma - 14


Shakib Al Hasan - dnp 
Jos Buttler - dnp 
Shubman Gill - dnp 
Simon Harmer - dnp 
Jack Leach- dnp 
Duanne Olivier - dnp 
Wayne Parnell - dnp 
Ben Stokes - dnp 
Kane Williamson - dnp 

Morne Morkel- ytp 

Overall 

Glenn Maxwell - 1321
Shakib Al Hasan - 1171
Ben Stokes - 1160
Joe Root- 1098
Virat Kohli- 1003
Shreyas Iyer - 983
Rashid Khan - 979
Kane Williamson - 971
Kuldeep Yadav - 811
Duanne Olivier - 793
Jos Buttler - 760
Jonny Bairstow - 759
Rohit Sharma - 753
Callum Ferguson - 671
Joe Burns - 604
Simon Harmer - 500
Shai Hope - 465
Jeetan Patel - 446
Shubman Gill - 340
Mohammad Abbas - 331
Abdur Razzak- 178
Wayne Parnell - 148
Jack Leach - 65

Morne Morkel - ytp