Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Well here we are again....and what a doozy of a week with over 2000 points scored. Let's see who leads us out.

Scores after Week 1

1. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - 386 - Sooryavanshi, like Athapaththu before him, is a very experimental pick. Something of an unknown quantity and a very left field pick. And just like Athapaththu, he dispels those concerns by finishing first in Week 1. Very impressive debut.

2. Ravindra Jadeja - 288 - A couple of games for Saurashtra in the Vijay Hazare Trophy this week and he underlined his all rounder capabilities by scoring in 7 of the 8 point scoring categories.....just Fielding Bonus points for him left.

3. Travis Head- 262 - Had a stinker of a year last year and never reached nay higher than ninth. He is now born again as an opener and has come straight in at Number 3 for the New Year. Can he return to his 2024 peak where he finished third?

4. Harry Brook - 176 - Will want to put 2025 well behind him. He finished 10th but was a year replete with poor decision; both on and off the field. 126 runs in the final Test is enough for him to start the year on the front foot.

5. Jos Buttler - 163 - Refreshingly...and I suspect rarely....the highest T20 point score of the year only manages to sneak into the Top 5. 113 runs for Durban in the SA20 (albeit very unevenly split) also gives Buttler the best T20 average with him scoring 81 and a half points per game (a new metric for 2026)


Highest Weekly Average

Not applicable this week

Highest Average Points per Game

Red Ball- n/a
One Day - Ravindra Jadeja - 144
Short Form - Jos Buttler - 81.5

Highest Points by Format

Red Ball- Travis Head - 262
One Day - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - 386
Short Form - Jos Buttler - 163

Highest Points by Discipline

Runs - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - 206
Batting Bonus - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi- 50
Strike rate - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - 70

Wickets - Ravindra Jadeja - 80
Wicket Bonus - Ravindra Jadeja - 20
Economy Saim Ayub - 30

Fielding - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - 40
Fielding Bonus - n/a

List In Full

1 Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 386
2 Ravindra Jadeja 288
3 Travis Head 262
4 Harry Brook 176
5 Jos Buttler 163
6 Sam Curran 161
7 Quinton de Kock 149
8 Saib Ayub 144
9 Nicholas Pooran 112
10 Mehidy Hasan Miraz 109
11 Rachin Ravindra 97
12 Aiden Markram 93
13 Phil Salt 63
14 Simon Harmer 46
15 Pathum Nissanka 22
16 Shubman Gill 11
17 Marco Jansen 0
18 Liam Dawson ytp
19 Nat Sciver-Brunt ytp
20 Sophie Ecclestone ytp
21 Michael Bracewell ytp
22 Paul Walter ytp

Nicholas Pooran - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Final Full Weekly Top 5

1. Nicholas Pooran - 221 - We are very much in the midst of franchise cricket mania with competitions in Australia, Bangladesh, Dubai and South Africa. Pooran played four times in two of these competitions. Still 141 is a good haul for his fourth Cricketer of the Week of the year.

2. Travis Head - 220 - One point behind this week's 'best' cricketer courtesy of another huge score in another huge Ashes success. Moves up from 17th to 15th in what has otherwise been an underwhelming year.

3. Sam Curran - 166 - Just on his usual T20 grind. 66 runs and a wicket in three games in the ILT20 sees him in the Top 5 once more.

4. Kane Williamson - 161 - Finished off a Test match before kicking off a T20 tournament in South Africa ...and did pretty well in both. 91 points from the red ball game and 70 from the white ball one.

5. Jamie Smith - 152 - Probably his least disappointing disappointment across The Ashes. 82 runs and 4 contributions in the field.

Overall Top 5 with 5 days Left of the Year

1. Sam Curran -4951 - 657 point lead on second place. All but wrapped up that Curran will join Buttler as the second Englishman to win our Cricketer of the Year.

2. Nat Sciver-Brunt - 4294 - Inactive but very comfortable for a second place finish this year. The second year in a row a female cricketer has taken the silver medal.

3. Liam Dawson - 4061 - Got the indignity of a zero point week this week....but is one of the players who will be in action this week so it least he won't round of his year with a blob. Provides a slight symmetry though as his second weekly score was a zero to go along with his second to last.

4. Jos Buttler- 3972 - Had been inactive for 6 weeks and dropped from 2nd to 5th but just 60 points non Friday for Durban sees him back up a spot to 4th....89 off a bronze medal.

5.Ravindra Jadeja - 3966 - Was not part of the Indian gang that joined up to play domestic cricket in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and thus drops down a place.

Ones To Watch

Only 161 points separate Jamie Smith, Chamari Athapaththu, Travis Head, Liam Livingstone and Henrich Klaasen. All will be active over the next 5 days so all to play for,

Other Movers

Babar Azam's mini-Renaissance continues as he rises up to 15th place.

Top 3 Averages

1. Sam Curran - 150.03 (Up from 149.53)
2. Ravindra Jadeja = 136.76
3. Nat Sciver-Brunt = 136.1

Travis Head's big score sees his average improve by 4.8 ....but at 90.21 he has the fourth worst of anyone. Phil Salt's bad week sees him drop 3.4 and move down to 115.28.

Top Players By Format

Red Ball -Ravindra Jadeja= 2529
One Day - Nat Sciver Brunt = 1484
Short Form - Sam Curran 4034

Top Players by Discipline

* = New Name

Runs - Yashasvi Jaiswal = 2060
Batting Bonus - Passum Nissanka = 440
Strike Rate – Nicholas Pooran = 1010

Wickets - Liam Dawson - 1640
Wicket Bonus - Ravindra Jadeja = 200
Economy - Ravindra Jadeja = 750

Fielding - Jos Buttler = 630
Fielding Bonus - Jamie Smith, Jos Buttler & Phil Salt – 40

Weekly List In Full

Nicholas Pooran 221
Travis Head 220
Sam Curran 166
Kane Williamson 161
Jamie Smith 152
Rishabh Pant 125
Harry Brook 125
Babar Azam 110
Jasprit Bumrah 70
Chamari Athapaththu 69
Jos Buttler 60
Saim Ayub 58
Heinrich Klaasen 53
Liam Livingstone 21
Adam Zampa 18
Phil Salt 10
Suryakumar Yadav 5
Liam Dawson 0

Wanindu Hasaranga dnp
Annabel Sutherland dnp
Ravindra Jadeja dnp
Yashasvi Jaiwal dnp
Nat Sciver-Brunt dnp
Pathum Nissanka dnp

Overall Scores In Full

1 Sam Curran 4951
2 Nat Sciver-Brunt 4294
3 Liam Dawson 4061
4 Jos Buttler 3972
5 Ravindra Jadeja 3966
6 Nicholas Pooran 3848
7 Phil Salt 3689
8 Annabel Sutherland 3460
9 Yashasvi Jaiwal 3218
10 Pathum Nissanka 3109
11 Harry Brook 3021
12 Kane Williamson 2911
13 Saim Ayub 2846
14 Jamie Smith 2630
15 Babar Azam 2549
16 Chamari Athapaththu 2532
17 Travis Head 2526
18 Liam Livingstone 2496
19 Heinrich Klaasen 2487
20 Wanindu Hasaranga 2463
21 Suryakumar Yadav 2263
22 Jasprit Bumrah 2078
23 Rishabh Pant 1977
24 Adam Zampa 1576

Hardik Pandya - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Weekly Top 5

1. Hardik Pandya - 196 - Injury has hampered Hardik this year but every now and then you get a glimpse of him at his best. This week it was in one of his three games against the West Indies where he got 70*. It is his second Cricketer of the Week accolade this year.

2. Shakib Al Hasan - 193 - Last week he was playing for Montreal in the Global T20 Canada league, he has seemingly dumped them to go and play for Galle in the LPL. Has started very well with 53 runs and three wickets in his opening two games.

3. Moeen Ali - 173 - This was his highest score in any of the Ashes Tests. Not expecting to play Test Cricket 6 weeks ago he now has more Test Match points than Devon Conway, David Warner, Shubman Gill, Marco Jansen, Babar Azam, Shakib Al Hasan & Suryakumar Yadav.

=4. Jonny Baistow - 172 - When Bairstow plays well England win. That may very well be a coincidence but worked himself into form at the same time as England began to look ascendant.

=4. Shubman Gill - 172 - 2 months ago, Gill looked a world beater in all formats...then he has fallen away. This week he sorted out his ODI form which has seen him pop back into the Weekly Top 5 once more.

Overall Top 5

1. Shakib Al Hasan - 3532 - Lost his top place spot to Shubman Gill 11 weeks ago, he edges ahead of Simon Harmer this week to take a 79 point lead into Week 32 of the year.

2. Simon Harmer - 3453 - Only took first place last week, he picked the wrong time to take a rest. He is likely to play some part in the One Day Cup campaign soon.

3. Shubman Gill - 3265 - A decent score this week sees him arrest his slide down the table. Needs to sort his T20 form out in order to keep the wolves from the door.

4. Ravindra Jadeja - 3135 - A disappointing final two ODIs from Jadeja, but he manages to hold onto fourth place for a second week.

5. Rashid Khan - 3135 - Put in his best showing in the final of the MLC, however is now out of The Hundred tournament with an 'unspecified injury'. Buttler and Curran, who will both feature in the tournament, are 47 and 130 points behind him respectively.

Other Movers

Brook and Khawaja were the ones to watch last week. They scored 3 points different to each other and both shuffled up a place into 14th and 15th. Green drops two places to make way.

Top 3 Averages

1. Shakib Al Hasan - 185.89 (Up from 185.5)
2. Simon Harmer - 172.65 (Up from 153.68)
3. Ravindra Jadeja - 165 (Down from 170.94)

Jadeja's drop of 5.94 points is the largest of the week whilst Bairstow's improvement of 8 points is the best improvement.


Points By Format

Long Form - Simon Harmer = 2616
One Day - Shakib Al Hasan = 1248
Short Form = Rashid Khan = 2936

Points By Discipline

Runs - Shubman Gill = 2085
Batting Bonus - Shubman Gill = 380
Strike Rate - Jos Buttler = 640

Wickets - Rashid Khan = 1520
Wicket Bonus - Simon Harmer = 250
Economy - Simon Harmer = 700

Fielding - Jos Buttler = 450
Fielding Bonus - Jonny Bairstow = 90

Weekly List In Full

Hardik Pandya 196
Shakib Al Hasan 193
Moeen Ali 173
Jonny Bairstow 172
Shubman Gill 172
Harry Brook 152
Suryakumar Yadav 150
Usman Khawaja 149
Rashid Khan 130
Pat Cummins 125
Babar Azam 116
David Warner 104
Sam Curran 94
Jos Buttler 77
Devon Conway 74
Ravindra Jadeja 58

Rishabh Pant dnp
Simon Harmer dnp
Marco Jansen dnp
Cam Green dnp

Overall list In Full

1 Shakib Al Hasan 3532
2 Simon Harmer 3453
3 Shubman Gill 3265
4 Ravindra Jadeja 3135
5 Rashid Khan 3094
6 Jos Buttler 3047
7 Sam Curran 2964
8 Devon Conway 2694
9 Suryakumar Yadav 2089
10 Babar Azam 2049
11 Hardik Pandya 2036
12 Moeen Ali 1967
13 Marco Jansen 1859
14 Harry Brook 1694
15 Usman Khawaja 1690
16 Cam Green 1653
17 David Warner 1583
18 Pat Cummins 1286
19 Jonny Bairstow 972