Behind the scenes with Joe Denly

The 2018 PCA Most Valuable Player Joe Denly continued his golden year on his first appearance for England since 2010 with career best bowling figures in T20 cricket of four wickets for 19 runs to help England beat Sri Lanka in a one-off IT20.

The Kent all-rounder was in blistering form all summer, which saw him win the NatWest PCA Players’ Player of the Year to add to his Overall MVP title and wins in both domestic white-ball competitions.

The prestigious Reg Hayter Cup for the NatWest PCA Players’ Player of the Year and a £10,000 cheque for statistically proving he was without question the MVP in domestic cricket, his form earned the 32-year-old a recall to the England squad.

Scheduled to arrive for the Test series, Denly arrived earlier than expected to cover the injury of Liam Dawson in the white-ball leg of the tour, a chance he took with both hands taking four wickets and hitting 20 runs with the bat to increase his chances of earning his debut Test cap.

The 32-year-old scored an astonishing 579 points, largely thanks to 1,749 runs across all formats and a career-record 57 wickets – a remarkable achievement given he had only taken 75 wickets in his previous 14 seasons.

Denly scored the bulk of his MVP points in the limited overs portion of the summer; 613 One-Day Cup runs and 409 in the Vitality Blast took some serious hitting. However, it was his contribution with the ball that propelled him up the MVP table.

He finished with 24 wickets in the Royal London One-Day Cup to take the Spitfires to the Lord’s final, but despite four wickets in the showpiece event, he could not quite get his side over the line. He was also their leading wicket-taker in the Vitality Blast with his leg-spin proving a key asset to the team.

It was on July 6 when everybody really knew Denly would be the man to beat this summer. Hitting an unbeaten T20 hundred on a Friday night in South London, he followed it up with a hat-trick against Surrey – from there, there was no looking back.

View the 2018 MVP Rankings here.