The Cricket List 2026 Reveal

And with 2025 done and dusted....let's start revealing the names of the 2026 participants of The Cricket List starting with the retained players.

Retained 

Saim Ayub - Had his year disrupted by that severe injury on January 1st last year. Managed to drag himself up to 13th but fully fit and firing on all cylinders he could be in for a big year in 2026.

Harry Brook - Back for his fourth consecutive year on The Cricket List despite having a less than impressive 2025. For the man who is the poster boy for the future of English cricket 2026 will be a big year.

Jos Buttler - The Cricketer of the Year from 2024 back for his 6th year overall. Is he able to finish in the Top 5 for the third year in the row?

Sam Curran - Our Cricketer of the Year for 2025 was a gimme to return in 2026. Can he be the first Cricketer to do it back to back since Simon Harmer?

Liam Dawson - A bit of a surprise package in 2025.....mainly because he played so much cricket that I wouldn't have been overly surprised if he was playing in my garden one given evening.

Travis Head - Not the best of year's for Head who finished 17th in 2025 - a far cry from his third place finish in 2024. Which version of him will be served up in 2026?

Ravindra Jadeja - Won't play as much as some of the others on our List but when he does he will score big. Can he finish in the Top 5 in successive years?

Pathum Nissanka - Got knocked out of the Top Ten on the very last day of the year but is a huge huge talent that may only get huger as he has managed to pick himself an IPL deal for 2026.

Nicholas Pooran - Finished just outside the Top 5 this year and plays in every T20 franchise going. Can he breach the Top 5 this year?

Phil Salt - Back for his third consecutive year in The Cricket List. Finished in the Top Ten both years but without ever really threatening anything bigger. Maybe this year?

Nat Sciver-Brunt - A good year domestically for NSB where she was instrumental in both the WIPL and WBBL....less impressive internationally but some development to come.

Returning 

Quinton De Kock - Last seen in these parts in 2022 where he finished 8th. T20 gun for hire and now back in the Proteas green too so should be scoring big.

Shubman Gill - Finished 2024 in 16th place....you feel if he was selected this year he would have finished rather higher than that.

Simon Harmer - The All Time highest Cricketer of the Week winner returns. Not only is he a County Championship stalwart but now a genuine Test spinning threat.

Marco Jansen - Was on our List in 2023 but lacked consistency. Is he now a finished enough product to mount an assault on the Top 5?

Rachin Ravindra - Had quite a poor season in his inaugural season in 2024. Can he force his agenda a little more in 2026?

New Selections

Michael Bracewell - Always need a Kiwi in our List and this year's offering is well thought of Michael Bracewell. Question marks will arise around the amount of cricket he will fit in but he is undoubtably a quality player.

Sophie Ecclestone - Our fourth female Cricketer of all time and joining her international teammate on The List for 2026. Put aside some question marks over her fitness to one side and looks set to be a key feature in 2026.

Aiden Markram - Has long been on the longlist for these Lists but has never quite made it to the final 22...until this year. With his national team in the ascendancy it would be churlish to not include him.

Mehidy Hassan Miraz - Had a quietly very competent year this week. We have had two previous Bangladesh players; the hugely successful Shakib Al Hasan and the very unsuccessful Abdur Razzak. Which will MHM emulate?

Vaibhav Suryavanshi - Probably the most enigmatic pick of our 9 years doing this. There is A LOT of pressure on this 14 year old but it seems that he shrugs that off with aplomb. Will be fascinating to see where he ends up

Paul Walter - Simon Harmer's Essex team mate is coming in this year as a James Vince-alike. Unlikely to finish top like Vince did might push his county brethren hard.

Discarded

The most notable rejected player this year is Babar Azam who has featured in every version of these lists for the last 8 years and won it in 2020. Chamari Athapaththu is also let go after a very successful 2024. She was the first female player in our game. Annabel Sutherland is also let go - the highest ranked player to be unselected for 2026 after having finished 8th this year.

The other players who we are letting go this year include relative veteran Kane Williamson who is being kicked out for the third time. Two other players to have failed at their second time of asking are Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant who finished in the bottom 3 whilst Jaisal ends his two year spell. Other one hit wonders from this year are: Wanindu Hasaranga, Heinrich Klassen, Liam Livingstone, Jamie Smith, Suryakumar Yadav and Adam Zampa.

 

Sam Curran The Best Cricketer of the Week

 Just before the big fat man comes and gives you your goodies, let the mildly out of shape man let you know who has topped the bill on this the penultimate update of the year.

Weekly Top 5

1. Sam Curran - 350 - Almost every T20 Franchise tournament he turns out for, there will be a week where the Englishman pulls a madness. This week was that week. 130 runs and 4 wickets sees him claim his 5th Cricketer of the week this year - the second most of anyone.

2. Yashasvi Jaiswal - 245 - Part of a slew of Indian stars who returned to the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for it's final stages and he very much made the most of it. Clearly the highlight of his week was the 101 against Haryana.

3. Liam Livingstone - 155 - Making the very most of the the last few weeks of the year. Over the last 5 weeks he has only not scored 100+ points once; in that time he has moved up from 19th to 15th place.

4. Phil Salt - 118 - Since the start of the Dubai based T20 tournaments five weeks ago, no player has scored more than Salt's 716 points; averaging 147.2 points a week. This week's had no discernible highlight with decent scores against the Vipers and the Gulf.

5. Nicholas Pooran - 116 - Two poor performances saved by a score of 48* in the ILT20 gives him fifth place and is our last 100+ scorer of the week.

Overall Top 5

1. Sam Curran - 4785 - Curran's lead was already looking decent.....and then he went and spoiled it all by doing something stupid and coring 350 points. Looks like we will have a new name on the Cricketer of the Year Trophy for 2025.

2. Nat Sciver-Brunt - 4294 - Was instrumental in Hobart's inaugural WBBL victory and got another 75 points in the final.

3. Liam Dawson - 4061 - Timed an absolute monster of an innings ( 38 off 14) just before the IPL auction.....it didn't work but it shores up his third place position.

4. Ravindra Jadeja - 3966 - Inactive for the week.....and very possibly done for the year....always hard to tell with the vagaries of cricket fixtures.

5. Jos Buttler - 3912 - Inactive once more and has a gap of 233 between himself and Salt.

Top 3 Averages

1. Sam Curran - 149.53 (Up from 143.06)
2. Ravindra Jadeja = 136.76
3. Nat Sciver-Brunt = 136.1

Curran, already top, sees his average improve the most this week....Suryakumar Yadav sees his drop by 2.85 points almost exactly what it dropped the previous week.

Top Players By Format

Red Ball -Ravindra Jadeja= 2529
One Day - Nat Sciver Brunt = 1484
Short Form - Sam Curran 3868

Top Players by Discipline

* = New Name

Runs - * Yashasvi Jaiswal = 2060
Batting Bonus - *Passum Nissanka = 440
Strike Rate – Jos Buttler, *Phil Salt & *Nicholas Pooran = 960

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

Fielding - Jos Buttler = 600
Fielding Bonus - Jamie Smith, Jos Buttler & Phil Salt – 40

Weekly List In Full

Sam Curran 350
Yashasvi Jaiwal 245
Liam Livingstone 155
Phil Salt 118
Nicholas Pooran 116
Liam Dawson 94
Nat Sciver-Brunt 75
Pathum Nissanka 39
Suryakumar Yadav 22
Babar Azam 21

Adam Zampa dnp
Jos Buttler dnp
Heinrich Klaasen dnp
Rishabh Pant dnp
Saim Ayub dnp
Chamari Athapaththu dnp
Wanindu Hasaranga dnp
Kane Williamson dnp
Travis Head dnp
Harry Brook dnp
Jasprit Bumrah dnp
Jamie Smith dnp
Annabel Sutherland dnp
Ravindra Jadeja dnp

Overall List In Full

1 Sam Curran 4785
2 Nat Sciver-Brunt 4294
3 Liam Dawson 4061
4 Ravindra Jadeja 3966
5 Jos Buttler 3912
6 Phil Salt 3679
7 Nicholas Pooran 3627
8 Annabel Sutherland 3460
9 Yashasvi Jaiwal 3218
10 Pathum Nissanka 3109
11 Harry Brook 2896
12 Saim Ayub 2788
13 Kane Williamson 2750
14 Jamie Smith 2478
15 Liam Livingstone 2475
16 Wanindu Hasaranga 2463
17 Chamari Athapaththu 2463
18 Babar Azam 2439
19 Heinrich Klaasen 2434
20 Travis Head 2306
21 Suryakumar Yadav 2258
22 Jasprit Bumrah 2008
23 Rishabh Pant 1852
24 Adam Zampa 1558

Pathum Nissanka - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Weekly Top 5 Update

1. Pathum Nissanka - 233 - What an end to 2025 Nissanka is having. This week he claimed his third Cricketer of the Week award after having climbed into the Top 10 for the first time last week. He is now the highest run scorer in out List as well as having the most BB points.

2. Kane Williamson - 164 - Can't think of a time in the 8 year history of our storied game where someone has had two Test Matches in a week. With that in mind Williamson's total seems a little underwhelming but second is second.

3. Yashasvi Jaiswal - 156 - A Daddy score of 116 against South Africa was Jaiswal's sole contribution....but was in action for Mumbai as I calculated.

4. Sam Curran - 132 - Has switched into his T20 franchise tournament mode with some decent performances in the ILT20 most notably his score of 44 against the Gulf.

5. Phil Salt - 92 - Bit of a gulf between 5th and 4th this week but Salt got three OK-ish scores in the ILT20 to bag 5th.

Overall Top 5

1. Sam Curran - 4435 - Sensed his poor week last week and has now swollen his lead back up to 216.

2. Nat Sciver-Brunt - 4219 - A victim of her own success. Instrumental in taking Hobart to the WBBL final and therefore inactive this week while the other teams scrap to see who she will face off against.

3. Liam Dawson - 3967 - An insignificant score of 80 proved to be quite significant for Dawson as he jumps two places up to 3rd. 50 of those 80 points were in the field.

4. Ravindra Jadeja - 3966 - A solitary wicket in the final ODI against South Africa was not enough to see Jadeja keep third place. Down one to fourth.

5. Jos Buttler - 3912 - Now inactive for 5 weeks and out of the top 4 for the first time in 31 weeks. Has he got enough to hold off Salt in 6th. 351 points separate them.

Other Movers

A very weird one this week as the utterly useless Jamie Smith and his 45 points sees him overtake the inactive trio of Klaasen, Athapaththu and Kasaranga to move up three places to 14th. Pooran moves back up to seventh after a week away.

Top 3 Averages

1. Sam Curran - 143.06 (Down from 143.43)
2. Ravindra Jadeja = 136.76 (Down from 140.3)
3. Nat Sciver-Brunt = 136.1

Sutherland loses out the most (down 3.59 to 134.81) to cede here Top 3 place to the inactive Sciver-Brunt. Nissanka moves up by 4.57 to 127.92.

Top Players By Format

* = New Name

Red Ball -Ravindra Jadeja= 2529
One Day - Nat Sciver Brunt = 1484
Short Form - *Sam Curran 3518

Top Players by Discipline

* = New Name

Runs - * Passum Nissanka = 2020
Batting Bonus - *Passum Nissanka = 440
Strike Rate – Jos Buttler = 960

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

Fielding - Jos Buttler = 600
Fielding Bonus - Jamie Smith, Jos Buttler & Phil Salt – 40

Weekly List In Full

Pathum Nissanka 233
Kane Williamson 164
Yashasvi Jaiwal 156
Sam Curran 132
Phil Salt 92
Liam Dawson 80
Nicholas Pooran 79
Travis Head 75
Harry Brook 66
Jasprit Bumrah 50
Jamie Smith 45
Annabel Sutherland 45
Ravindra Jadeja 40
Suryakumar Yadav 27
Liam Livingstone 22

Adam Zampa dnp
Jos Buttler dnp
Heinrich Klaasen dnp
Rishabh Pant dnp
Nat Sciver-Brunt dnp
Babar Azam dnp
Saim Ayub dnp
Chamari Athapaththu dnp
Wanindu Hasaranga dnp

Overall List In Full

1 Sam Curran 4435
2 Nat Sciver-Brunt 4219
3 Liam Dawson 3967
4 Ravindra Jadeja 3966
5 Jos Buttler 3912
6 Phil Salt 3561
7 Nicholas Pooran 3511
8 Annabel Sutherland 3460
9 Pathum Nissanka 3070
10 Yashasvi Jaiwal 2973
11 Harry Brook 2896
12 Saim Ayub 2788
13 Kane Williamson 2750
14 Jamie Smith 2478
15 Wanindu Hasaranga 2463
16 Chamari Athapaththu 2463
17 Heinrich Klaasen 2434
18 Liam Livingstone 2320
19 Travis Head 2306
20 Suryakumar Yadav 2236
21 Babar Azam 2148
22 Jasprit Bumrah 2008
23 Rishabh Pant 1852
24 Adam Zampa 1558