Jos Buttler striking balls for fun. Kane Williamson grinding out a double hundred. This week has been a high scoring one for the boys on our list. This being said, neither of these high profile contributors have prevailed for Cricketer of the Week. Instead, that accolade has gone to Glenn Maxwell whose three innings against India have racked up 209 runs - including his third T20i ton. This is more runs than Buttler scored across his two games against a (supposably) weaker West Indies side and less than Williamson scored against a (definitely) weaker Bangladesh side. Instead we laud a player from an Australian side, for whom the adjective beleaguered is becoming a trademark, facing off against one of the World Cup favourites. In other weeks, Buttler or Williamson would have topped the charts but they have to take a back seat for Australia's secret weapon. What is becoming very clear is that when Maxwell plays destructively, Australia win. In the two games this week where he picked up points for his strike rates the Aussies won, but in yesterday's game where his 40 off 55 saw him just short of strike rate points, Australia were left wanting. Maxwell is now just a mere two points from the overall top spot and is likely to be Australia's secret weapon as the World Cup looms.
You may have felt that these posts have been rather lacking in praise for a certain aggressive Indian captain thus far in 2019. Mediocre performances and a long spell of rest for Virat Kohli have seen him not really feature in our calculations up to this point. However, his return to action this week has seen him return to form and score 240 points. This allows him to finish in our weekly top 5 for the first time in 2019. His 240 points constitute something of a total performance from the Indian - something we were very used to last year. 60% of his points came from the but a full quarter of his points came through fielding and strike rate. His tally this week also sees his average points for active weeks go up hugely. Before this week his average points were 111 across the four weeks in which he has played, it is now at 136.8. It also wouldn't be a decent Kohli week without a stat dredged out by ardent Indian fans to celebrate their superstar - however this one is a little special. With 304 days left in the year, Kohli has already surpassed Ricky Ponting's 18,962 runs scored in a calendar decade. Yes, Kohli will have played more games but....god that's a cool stat. Despite this strong week, Kohli is still outside our overall top ten - but on this form, for how long?
Kohli is not the only Indian batsman to surge up the table this week. Many see Shubman Gill as the future of Indian cricket - but his performances so far this year have not really demonstrated that. He started 2019 with a score of 91 for Punjab against Bengal but then he scored a cumulative 37 runs across 5 innings. Potentially more damagingly, 16 of these came in two games where he was called up to the full ODI side - aside he has now been discarded from for the Australian tour. It is therefore pleasing to see the young man score 102 runs across three games for Punjab this week - however he has very much ridden on the back of a 70* against tournament whipping boys Sikkim. Despite the fact he doubled his total for the year this week, he finds himself 6th from bottom of our overall league and our lowest place Indian player. Things look a little more troubling when you investigate those players below him. Gill has featured in 8 games for his 340 points. Jeetan Patel, one place below him, has played 7. Whilst the bottom 4 of Abbas, Parnell, Leach and Razzak have played 3, 4, 1 and 1 respectively. Of players to have had a decent run of games in 2019 - only Jeetan Patel has scored less than this Indian prodigy. I am in no way saying this 19-year-old doesn't have a chance but in order to cement your authority you need to seize your chances. Something that Gill has failed to display so far this year.
Week
Glenn Maxwell - 339
Jos Buttler - 273
Kane Williamson - 260
Virat Kohli- 240
Joe Burns - 190
Rashid Khan - 187
Shubman Gill - 172
Jonny Bairstow - 107
Shreyas Iyer- 94
Callum Ferguson - 91
Shai Hope - 68
Kuldeep Yadav - 60
Ben Stokes - 56
Abdur Razzak- 47
Rohit Sharma - 42
Joe Root - 16
Wayne Parnell - 15
Mohammad Abbas - 1
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Jack Leach- dnp
Duanne Olivier - dnp
Jeetan Patel - dnp
Morne Morkel - ytp
Overall
Shakib Al Hasan - 1171
Glenn Maxwell - 1170
Ben Stokes - 1160
Kane Williamson - 971
Joe Root- 993
Shreyas Iyer - 865
Duanne Olivier - 793
Rashid Khan - 769
Rohit Sharma - 739
Jos Buttler - 760
Virat Kohli- 684
Kuldeep Yadav - 628
Callum Ferguson - 603
Jonny Bairstow - 599
Joe Burns - 556
Simon Harmer - 500
Shai Hope - 422
Shubman Gill - 340
Jeetan Patel - 297
Mohammad Abbas - 261
Wayne Parnell - 148
Jack Leach - 65
Abdur Razzak- 47
Morne Morkel - ytp
