PCA PRESS RELEASE
As the Ashes wrap up in Sydney, it is the three experienced heads in the England dressing room that lead the PCA England Winter MVP.
To see more articles. Click here
James Anderson is clearly ahead of his new ball partner, Stuart Broad, and opening batsman Alastair Cook – with all three putting in displays on Boxing Day that reminded fans of why they have been successful for such a long period.
Anderson is England’s leading wicket-taker in the series with 16, and will be hoping to leave one last impression on the Australian public, in what will probably be his final Ashes Test Down Under.
With 80 MVP points to his name, another good performance with the ball at a ground he has done well at in the past, will put him in a good position to go to New Zealand as England’s Test MVP.
Stuart Broad continues to get back to his best, with the Boxing Day Test being his most proficient with bat and ball all series.
Fifty runs and four wickets saw him shoot to second in the rankings on 73 points. His first innings with the ball saw him record his best figures of 2017, and should give him confidence going into Sydney.
Alastair Cook was the star of the fourth Test, as he recorded another double hundred and rewrote the records book in the process.
England’s all-time leading run scorer racked up an unbeaten 244, the highest individual score by a batsman to carry his bat, and moved to sixth on leading run-scorers list – moving ahead of Mahela Jayawardene, Shivarine Chanderpaul and Brian Lara.
Cook now has 57.28 MVP batting points to his name, the most of any Englishman, and is tied in third place with Chris Woakes on 60 points.
The opener could surpass 12,000 Test runs in Sydney, but is likely to drop down the overall rankings as he will not be playing a part in the white-ball series.
Woakes and now Dawid Malan are going to feature in the ODI series, which begins on January 14th, and will be the chance for both to move up from the top five of the rankings.
Malan has earned plaudits for his batting, and bowling, performances throughout the Ashes and will be hoping another score bumps him up the rankings.
Two players just outside the top five, Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root, are only one big score away from shooting up the rankings. But, with the white-ball stuff to come, they are likely to be serious contenders for overall Winter MVP.
