Saim Ayub - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Only 4 active players this week so not a Top 5, but instead...

Weekly Round-Up

We start with the player that played in the highest profile fixture but did the least well. Rachin Ravindra's tournament never really took off and he registered just 31 points in the final to be our lowest scoring player this week.

Travis Head started his return to Red Ball cricket looking as out of nick as he was in the World Cup but then came back with a decent half century in the second dig against New South Wales this week to see him finish with 103 points and move up 2 places overall to 12th.

Mehidy Hasan Miraz has looked awful for large parts of this year but seems a changed man leading out the Tigers. A three-fer takes him to 110 points this week.

Our number one player this week has returned to domestic cricket after a disappointing World Cup and played a bit of a blinder. Two games for Karachi Region Whites saw him score 86and get 4 wickets as a reminder to his national selectors that he still can play. 246 points this week moves him into fifth - 36 points behind Harry Brook.

Overall Top 5

For the third week in a row the Top 5 looks like this:

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 1302
Quinton de Kock 1248
Aiden Markram 1239
Sam Curran 1156
Harry Brook 1011

All five players were inactive this week.

Highest Weekly Average

1. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi = 260.4
2.Ravindra Jadeja = 181.33
3. Nat Sciver-Brunt = 177.75

Good Week for Saim Ayub; up 17.74 to 121.88. Bad week for Rachin Ravindra; down 5.51 to 80.6.

Highest Average Points per Game

Red Ball- Simon Harmer = 248.5
One Day - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi = 108.5
Short Form - Nat Sciver-Brunt = 101.57

Highest Points by Format

Red Ball- Simon Harmer = 248.5
One Day - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - 1302
Short Form - Quinton De Kock = 1238

Highest Points by Discipline

Runs - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - 742
Batting Bonus - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi- 170
Strike Rate - Aiden Markram - 300

Wickets - Marco Jansen = 440
Wicket Bonus = Sam Curran = 60
Economy - Simon Harmer= 100

Fielding - Quinton de Kock = 250
Fielding Bonus - Quinton De Kock = 20

Weekly List In Full

Saim Ayub 246
Mehidy Hasan Miraz 110
Travis Head 103
Rachin Ravindra 31

Paul Walter dnp
Ravindra Jadeja dnp
Shubman Gill dnp
Nicholas Pooran dnp
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi dnp
Sophie Ecclestone dnp
Nat Sciver-Brunt dnp
Michael Bracewell dnp
Simon Harmer dnp
Marco Jansen dnp
Jos Buttler dnp
Harry Brook dnp
Sam Curran dnp
Aiden Markram dnp
Phil Salt dnp
Liam Dawson dnp
Quinton de Kock dnp
Pathum Nissanka dnp

Overall List in Full

1 Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 1302
2 Quinton de Kock 1248
3 Aiden Markram 1239
4 Sam Curran 1156
5 Harry Brook 1011
6 Saim Ayub 975
7 Marco Jansen 893
8 Rachin Ravindra 806
9 Pathum Nissanka 730
10 Jos Buttler 729
11 Nat Sciver-Brunt 711
12 Travis Head 613
13 Liam Dawson 574
14 Ravindra Jadeja 544
15 Simon Harmer 497
16 Phil Salt 430
17 Mehidy Hasan Miraz 402
18 Shubman Gill 240
19 Sophie Ecclestone 226
20 Nicholas Pooran 192
21 Michael Bracewell 184

KL Rahul - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 What a weird week. Despite 14 cricketers featuring only 545 points were scored - on 4 occasions in the five year history of this List a single player has scored that in a single week.

This was largely down the World Cup warm-ups but also some pretty anodyne performances.

Weekly Update

1. KL Rahul - 107 - This is the third lowest Cricketer of the Week winning total of all time and an odd way for KLR to win his first accolade.... despite his dominance in the IPL last season. You'd take it with the World Cup on the horizon.

2. Ben Stokes - 96 - Maybe not back to electric form but certainly wind generated form as he claims 36 runs and a wicket in England's final warm up game against Pakistan.

3. Simon Harmer - 91 - You can't keep a good man down. It looked like Friday's game might have been rained off which would have left Harmer on 43 points but a brace against Western Province brings him up into the Top 5....again.

4. Glenn Maxwell - 83 - Was being asked to justify his place in the side and maybe did so with a quickfire 23 and a wicket in the final warm up game against India.

5. Bhanuka Rajapaksa - 64 - Was last seen in the Top 5 for his tournament winning knock in the Asia Cup. This week he scored less points in 3 World Cup qualifying games. Probably doesn't deserve his place but rules is rules.

Overall

1. Simon Harmer - 4869 - Back playing cricket for the Titans and therefore back in the title hunt.... however, all 4 of the rest of the Top 5 will be playing an awful lot over the next three weeks compared to him. His lead is back above 500 points though.

2. Mohammad Rizwan - 4295 - A weird 0 score this week from a man that is likely to score big in the World Cup

3. Babar Azam - 3544 - Did not feature in Pakistan's two World Cup games but you feel this might be the calm before the storm.

4. Moeen Ali - 3533 - One of those anomalous 0 scores - however Moeen holds 4th spot for a second week.

5. Quinton De Kock - 3326 - Inactive this week. Very much more active next week, you'd imagine.

Other Movers

A meagre score in a week of meagre scores, but Travis Head's score of 52 sees him overtake long time absentee Kyle Jamieson and moves him into 17th.

Ones to Watch

All of the Top 5 will be in action next week - but the biggest fight will be between the World Cup pair of Babar Azam and Moeen Ali. With just 11 points between them (the tightest gap in the List) it could be interesting to see who takes the initiative.

Top Three Averages

1. Simon Harmer = 202.88 (Down from 207.74)
2. Ben Stokes = 144.2 (Down from 146.74)
3. Babar Azam = 141.76 (Down from 147.67)

Only one player's average improved last week and that was by the dizzying gulf of 0.47 points; that was KL Rahul who now stands at 96.61 a week. The biggest hit came to Babar Azam who moves down to second once more.

Top Players By Format


Long Form - Simon Harmer = 4063
One Day - Babar Azam = 1002
Short Form - Moeen Ali = 3137

Highest Points by Discipline


Runs - Mohammad Rizwan - 2485
Batting Bonus - Babar Azam = 510
Strike Rate - Moeen Ali = 750

Wickets - Simon Harmer = 2320
Wicket Bonus - Simon Harmer = 410
Economy - Simon Harmer = 1040

Fielding - Quinton De Kock = 680
Fielding Bonus - Rishabh Pant = 110

Weekly

KL Rahul 107
Ben Stokes 96
Simon Harmer 91
Glenn Maxwell 83
Bhanuka Rajapaksa 64
Travis Head 52
Marnus Labuschagne 24
Steve Smith 18
Pat Cummins 7
Kane Williamson 3
Babar Azam 0
Mohammad Rizwan 0
David Warner 0
Moeen Ali 0

Kyle Jamieson dnp
Jonny Bairstow dnp
Joe Root dnp
Matt Critchley dnp
Hasan Ali dnp
Quinton De Kock dnp
Risabh Pant dnp

Overall

1 Simon Harmer 4869
2 Mohammad Rizwan 4295
3 Babar Azam 3544
4 Moeen Ali 3533
5 Quinton De Kock 3326
6 Rishabh Pant 3226
7 Glenn Maxwell 2930
8 Ben Stokes 2884
9 Marnus Labuschagne 2725
10 Joe Root 2648
11 Jonny Bairstow 2593
12 Matt Critchley 2473
13 David Warner 2238
14 KL Rahul 2222
15 Pat Cummins 2083
16 Hasan Ali 2037
17 Travis Head 1572
18 Kyle Jamieson 1547
19 Steve Smith 1530
20 Bhanuka Rajapaksa 1147
21 Kane Williamson 1019

Babar Azam - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 It's all well and good with your IPL but two of the best performances this week did not come from the UAE but from Rawalpindi and Adelaide. First off we have our Cricketer of the Week - Babar Azam whose 292 points is the eleventh highest score of the year. The Pakistan superstar has the eighth and eleventh highest weekly score of 2020 alongside the lowest (130). His two mega performances sees him win player of the series - but many will question the quality of opposition. Due to the skulduggery of the ICC scheduling system it is rare for any of our players to face off against Zimbabwe. This is just the sixth time any one on our List has had a fixture versus The Chevrons. These six performances encompass only four players: Shakib Al Hasan and Rashid Khan who have played them twice and Aaron Finch and Babar Azam who have played them the once. In terms of raw score, Azam's 292 is second after Rashid Khan's 328 against Zimbabwe in February 2018. That big total encompassed three ODIs compared to Azam's two. This means, on average, Rashid got 109.33 points per ODI whilst Azam got 146 this week. Azam was playing against a weak opponent but he played the best against that opponent than any of the players we have ever seen on our Lists over the last three years. And there is more to come. There is now three T20s. Babar finds himself in second position for the third week in a row but is just 118 points off Stokes in first. This is the first year we are seeing a real battle for supremacy at the top of the table. By the first week of November in 2018 Simon Harmer had a 1032 point lead on Rashid Khan, with Glenn Maxwell being 738 clear of Harmer last year. So whose side are you on; Azam or Stokes?

Travis Head must be overjoyed with his early performances in the Sheffield Shield. Justin Langer maybe less so. The Australia coach has an embarrassment of batsmen. Head has given him an ache with two centuries in the first three rounds of fixtures. Head was one of the players that was most effected by the Covid break; this week is only his tenth active week of 2020. Only Keshav Maharaj, Peter Handscomb (9 each) and Harmer and Colin Ackermann (8 each) have had less cricket this year. At the end of last year's Shield the Redback captain was riding high in eighth place with 901 points. The next time he picked up his bat in anger, four weeks ago, he had slumped to 19th. The long respite doesn't seem to have effected him at all as he has earned 538 points over the last month. This has seen him move up to 14th position. His total this week was boosted with 50 points for his bowling thanks to the wicket of Nic Maddinson and an economy of 5.21. A pretty useful week all told. Head finishes in the top five for the third week out of the last four and is now 40 points behind Virat Kohli. The Indian isn't playing as much cricket as he'd like over the next few days so it's likely that Head may overtake him. That Kohli vs Head battle may continue when they face off against each other in Adelaide in the First Test in December.

The T20 journey of Jason Holder has been rocky over the last few months. Like Rocky, it seems that the big man may prevail in the end. You may have ended the CPL thinking the West Indian Test captain was something of a busted flush in the shortest form of the game. He was out of the T20 national side and failed to impress with either bat or ball in his home tournament. He finished 12th on the run table and 15th for most wickets. Decent but nothing to boast about from the ICC's top rated All Rounder. If you compared him to Mohammad Nabi, the other player we had playing in the tournament, he came off second best. The Afghan All Rounder scored more points than him with more wickets at a better economy and more points from fielding. Then Holder was expecting a period of time in the cricketing wilderness. Until the injury of Mitchell Marsh and his call up for Hyderabad. Here we have many more players to compare Holder to - and the outcome is much more favourable for the Barbadian. After 6 games, Holder has scored 425 points - averaging 70.83. This is the highest for any of the 11 players from our List in this year's IPL. Three of his six performances have been in the top third of all points totals for players in our List. None of his performances have been in the bottom third. It is no coincidence that Hyderabad's fortunes pivoted the moment they dropped Bairstow for the West Indian. He is well worth his re-entry into the top 5. With at least one more game guaranteed and just 10 points off fourth position you would imagine the only way is up.

Week


Babar Azam - 292
Jason Holder - 270
Keshav Maharaj- 257
Travis Head - 230
Marnus Labuschagne- 187
David Warner - 180
Virat Kohli- 72
Shubman Gill - 66
Peter Handscomb- 55
Aaron Finch - 52
Ben Stokes - 28
Rohit Sharma - 14
Steve Smith- 14


Kyle Abbott - dnp
Colin Ackermann- dnp
Tom Banton - dnp
Lewis Gregory - dnp
Martin Guptill- dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Mohammad Nabi - dnp
Joe Root - dnp


Overall


Ben Stokes - 2729
Babar Azam - 2611
Joe Root - 2286
Lewis Gregory - 2126
Jason Holder- 2116
David Warner - 2066
Simon Harmer - 1922
Aaron Finch - 1881
Marnus Labuschagne - 1781
Steve Smith - 1681
Glenn Maxwell - 1565
Shubman Gill - 1522
Virat Kohli - 1519
Travis Head - 1479
Mohammad Nabi - 1458
Martin Guptill - 1456
Keshav Maharaj - 1427
Colin Ackermann - 1435
Tom Banton - 1066
Rohit Sharma - 927
Peter Handscomb - 438