Chamari Athapaththu - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Top 5 after Week 1

1. Chamari Athapaththu - 159 - Rewards her inclusion in the list with a high score in her debut week. 4 wickets in a Super Smash game against Wellington Women sees her out the gate in the first week just as Conway, Jamieson, Guptil, Olivier and Buttler have before her.

2. Glenn Maxwell - 142 - A performance that ticked all the boxes in BBL 13 this week. 72 runs with the bat, 50 with the ball and 20 in the field. Can't ask for more than that.

3. Aaron Hardie - 119 - Debuts in third spot and is benefited by the fact that he played 2 games this week compared to everyone else playing the solitary T20 game or Test however with 2 scores over 30 looks a comfortable run scorer with lots of BBL 13 cricket left to play.

4. Yashasvi Jaiswal - 98 - None of the 4 Indian players who featured in the second Test against South Africa hung around long enough to really start their year well but Jaiswal boosted his 58 runs with the bat with 40 fielding points.

5. Virat Kohli - 68 - A quiet start to his return to our little game. With 58, he scored the most runs of any of the 4 Indian players on our List....but that wouldn't have been hard.

Top Players by Format

Red Ball - Yashasvi Jaiswal - 98
One Day - N/a
Short Form - Chamari Athapaththu- 159

Top Players by Discipline

Runs - Aaron Hardie - 69
Batting Bonus - n/a
Strike Rate - Aaron Hardie & Glenn Maxwell = 40

Wickets - Chamari Athapaththu - 80
Wicket Bonus - Chamari Athapaththu - 20
Economy - Glenn Maxwell - 30

Fielding - Yashasvi Jaiswal - 40
Fielding Bonus - Yashasvi Jaiswal & James Vince = 10

List In Full 

1 Chamari Athapaththu 159
2 Glenn Maxwell 142
3 Aaron Hardie 119
4 Yashasvi Jaiswal 98
5 Virat Kohli 68
6 Shubman Gill 56
7 James Vince 49
8 Ravindra Jadeja 0

The Cricket List 2024

Retained

Moeen Ali – Was not in prime form in 2023 – but who was in an England shirt? His short form point scoring capability is too prolific for him not be included though.

Babar Azam – Disappointing last year and looked to be on the road to heading out of the Top 10 in current form…however Azam is back for his fifth consecutive year in the competition.

Jos Buttler – Despite finishing top in this year’s List, was a serious doubt as to whether he would live to fight another year. Just did not seem right to drop him but he needs to count his blessings.

Sam Curran – Had a disappointing last third of the year but, despite this, spent the last 31 weeks of the year within the Top 10. For sure worth his retention.

Shubman Gill – Gill spent 15 weeks leading the way in our List this year and never fell out of the Top 5. Be mad to not include him next year.

Simon Harmer – Another year of Harmer’s reign. He is the only player to have been picked in every single List since we started and is the All Time highest Cricketer of the Week winner with 42 weeks with the highest score.

Ravindra Jadeja – An inspiration to some of the returning cricketers to our List this year. Was disappointing in 2018 but been a revelation last year and a long time resident of a Top 5 berth.

Usman Khawaja – Ended up near the bottom of the list this year but also played the second least cricket of anyone this year. With more Test cricket scheduled next year he could be a greater force in 2024.

Harry Brook – Big things expected of Mr Brook ….but was nowhere near our Top Ten last year and only won a solitary Cricketer of the Week award

 

Returning

Travis Head – Featuring in our List in 2022, Head finished in 15^th place. After the most defining year in his career, can he make a greater impact in 2024?

Virat Kohli – One of the highest profile omissions from the 2023 List is back in very good form once more and should be a Top 10 cert.

Marnus Labuschagne – Won the whole thing in 2021, underwhelming in 2022, dropped in 2023, being given another crack at it in 2024. What version of Marnus will turn up?

Mitchell Marsh – Bit of a blast from the past here. Marsh was selected, alongside his brother, in the first ever List and has never resurfaced since but is now an all format cert for Australia.

Glenn Maxwell – The 2019 Cricket List champion is back for another tilt at success. Showed the ability to score MASSIVELY in the World Cup and is fully back from that broken leg. Could be prolific.

Steve Smith – Yet another Australian being given another go in the 2024 List. Has had a curiously sporadic life on our Lists. Present in 2018, 2020 and 2022, absent in 2019, 2021 and 2023….this is his year back in again.

 

Newly selected

Chamari Athapaththu – Flirted with putting a female cricketer on the List last year but decided against it. This year it is time. The Sri Lankan powerhouse will always score big – the question is, will she play enough cricket?

 

Aaron Hardie – Not the most well known name in World cricket but appease to be a lock in Australia’s white ball set up now.  

Yashasvi Jaiswal – The latest cab off the Indian superstar rank makes it onto The Cricket List for the first time. His highest honour thus far in his career.

Daryl Mitchell – Devon Conway was our sole New Zealander last year, but it was Mitchell who cemented his place in all three formats of the game in 2023 and is well worth a place for next year.

Rachin Ravindra – Burst onto the scene during the World Cup and continued to impress….but is he a flash in the pan or one for the ages?

Phil Salt – Not picked up by the IPL but seems to have been given a decent run in the England white ball team – should do the rounds of the franchises too so could be pick up a fair few points in bursts throughout the year.

James Vince – Potentially a left field choice but is reaching prolific run scoring prowess across all 3 formats in the domestic game. Could be the Simon Harmer of the willow. 

  Discarded 

The highest profile dropped player is Shakib Al Hasan who spent __ weeks at the top of The List but seems to be easing into the political world rather than the cricketing one. Rashid Khan did not impress and has also been deselected alongside other top ten contributors Devon Conway and Marco Jansen. 

David Warner's long time association with The List ends alongside fellow Ashes players Jonny Bairstow, Pat Cummins and Cam Green. 

Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya rounds off the deselected players from 2023.

The Cricket List 2023 Final Standings

 Weekly Top 3

1. Pat Cummins – 369 – Ends a glittering year of cricket with his highest score of the year thanks to a ten-wicket haul in the Test against Pakistan. That extended spell of time out of cricket sees him finish just 15th this year.

2. Marco Jansen – 244 – His strong end to the year continues. After finishing top last week with domestic exploits, he gets the silver medal this time out.

3. Babar Azam – 62 – Something of a dropping off from silver place to bronze position this week but one score of 41 sees Babar finish the year with an appearance in the weekly Top 3.

The Final Top 10

10. Babar Azam – 3731

Cricketers of the Week – 4

Average position on list over the year – 20 weeks @ 9th

Has to be chalked down as a disappointing year for Babar. After having won Cricketer of the Year in 2020 to just squeak into the Top 10 is something of a fall from grace.

Key Stat – His 1755 One Day points mark the third highest of anyone on our List – however that is 749 fewer than the number one position.

9. Marco Jansen - 3831

Cricketers of the Week – 3

Average position on list over the year – 8 weeks @ 10th

Undoubtably an emerging talent of world cricket but, as it stands, too sporadic to mount a real assault on the top places this year. A December surge saw him breach the Top 10.

Key Stat – Finishes the year with the fourth most wickets, behind some very glittering names.


8. Devon Conway - 4051

Cricketers of the Week – 4

Average position on list over the year – 18 weeks @ 8th

Would come along with some very high profile massive scores….and then disappear for a month. Very much lacked the consistency to keep it up all year. This is backed up by his very middling average of 106.61 points a week.

Key Stat – The highest run scorer was miles away from Conway’s 2501 but he ended the year needing just 5 more runs to overtake Buttler and finish second.

7. Rashid Khan - 4068

Cricketers of the Week – 2

Average position on list over the year – 14 weeks @ 6th

Another one who failed to impress over the year. Was always flirting with the Top 5 whilst never really tying it down for any long term commitment. Injury did not help in the last part of the year.

Key Stat – Only 2 cricketers played more cricket than Rashid did this year – and that includes spending 6 weeks having back surgery after the World Cup.


6. Sam Curran - 4110

Cricketers of the Week – 2

Average position on list over the year – 11 weeks @ 8th

A tale of what could have been for Sam Curran. Did very well in the Summer, blew hot and cold in the West Indies…..but was quietly dropped from the World Cup XI. Still 6th is pretty good going nonetheless.

Key Stat – Finished joint bottom of the Economy points table from proper bowlers (aka discounting Harry Brook).

5. Simon Harmer - 4432

Cricketers of the Week – 6

Average position on list over the year – 9 weeks @ both 16th and 4th.

Not a vintage year for Harmer, 6 Cricketer of the Week was the most of anyone….but was also the lowest he has had (discounting Covid years). Effected massively by the fact he played so little cricket.


Key Stat – His average of 184.67 points per active week is the highest of anyone.


4. Ravindra Jadeja – 4487

Cricketers of the Week – 4

Average position on list over the year – 24 weeks @ 5th

Was picked on these lists for the first time in 2018 and did not do very well….has redressed that issue rather this year with a 4th placed finish. Only spent 14 weeks out of the Top 5 this year.

Key Stat – Simon Harmer usually dominates the bowling statistics….but not so this year. Jadeja finished with the most wickets and the highest economy points of any player.

3. Shubman Gill – 4814

Cricketers of the Week – 4

Average position on list over the year – 19 weeks @ 3rd

I am loathe to call this a breakout year for Gill….perhaps it is a breakaway year. Moved out of the shadow of Kohli to become a fully fledged superstar in his own right.


Key Stat – Dominated the batting this year. Finished with the most runs (3044), the most batting bonus points (600) and the third highest Strike Rate points (800)

2. Shakib Al Hasan - 4846

Cricketers of the Week – 5

Average position on list over the year – 29 weeks @ 1st.

In many ways he should have been our outright winner this year but his injury/political aspirations meant that after the World Cup he went AWOL.


Key Stat – Master of all trades but jack of none. Shakib Al Hasan finished in the Top 5 for Strike Rate points with the bat and (perhaps surprisingly) in the Top 5 highest economy points.


1. Jos Buttler - 5078

Cricketers of the Week – 4

Average position on list over the year – 26 weeks @ 2nd

Usually across the year things balance themselves out but this is the first time where I have felt that the overall winner is rather unjustified. Nobody has played more cricket than Buttler this week but his average points of 126.95 is not insignificant. Just feels a bit….flat.

Key Stat – Buttler excelled in two areas. He scored 290 more Strike rate pints than Suryakumar Yadav and 490 more fielding points than Jonny Bairstow.


And The Rest

11 Moeen Ali 3530
12 David Warner 3401
13 Suryakumar Yadav 3306
14 Harry Brook 2958
15 Pat Cummins 2684
16 Hardik Pandya 2620
17 Usman Khawaja 2359
18 Cam Green 2325
19 Jonny Bairstow 1812

Averages in Full

Simon Harmer 184.66
Shakib Al Hasan 156.32
Ravindra Jadeja 144.74
Shubman Gill 137.54
Pat Cummins 127.8
Jos Buttler 126.95
Babar Azam 120.35
Marco Jansen 116.09
Sam Curran 108.15
Usman Khawaja 107.22
Rashid Khan 107.05
Devon Conway 106.60
Hardik Pandya 104.8
David Warner 103.06
Suryakumar Yadav 100.18
Cam Green 93
Moeen Ali 90.51
Harry Brook 84.51
Jonny Bairstow 82.36


Top 3 Points by Format

Long Form

Simon Harmer – 3316
Usman Khawaja – 1868
Ravindra Jadeja – 1861

One Day

Shubman Gill – 2504
Shakib Al Hasan – 2227
Babar Azam – 1755

Short Form

Jos Buttler – 3411
Rashid Khan – 4078
Sam Curran – 2905

Top 3 Points by Discipline

Runs

Shubman Gill – 3044
Jos Buttler – 2508
Devon Conway – 2501

Batting Bonus

Shubman Gill – 600
Babar Azam – 560
Devon Conway – 480

Strike Rate

Jos Buttler – 1100
Suryakumar Yadav – 810
Shubman Gill – 800

Wickets

Ravindra Jadeja – 1890
Rashid Khan – 1860
Simon Harmer – 1840

Wicket Bonus

Simon Harmer – 330
Ravindra Jadeja – 320
Pat Cummins – 190

Economy

Ravindra Jadeja – 940
Simon Harmer – 850
Rashid khan – 780

Fielding

Jos Buttler – 920
Jonny Bairstow – 430
Simon Harmer – 420

Fielding Bonus

Jos Buttler – 1200
Jonny Bairstow – 90
Devon Conway – 40