Woakes and Willey are your England MVPs

Chris Woakes and David Willey have been named the PCA England Overall and ODI MVPs respectively, as England’s international summer came to an end on Wednesday with a nail-biting three-wicket defeat to Australia.

It’s the second time Woakes has claimed the coveted England Overall MVP award in two summers, after he won the prize last year following his side’s successful World Cup campaign and subsequent 2-2 Ashes series draw with Australia.

The seamer has been a model of consistency this summer, having appeared a combined eight times in the Test and ODI formats, averaging 18.34 MVP points-per-game.

Although he didn’t appear in a single T20I this summer, and he missed the first Test of the season against the West Indies at Southampton, it’s enough for Woakes to be named England’s best player from a statistical viewpoint.

The MVP algorithm highlighted the very last game of Woakes’ international summer as his standout performance.

The all-rounder scored a quickfire 53 not out to carry England past 300 at Emirates Old Trafford, before claiming figures of 2-46 which was made up of the two key wickets of Aaron Finch and Marcus Stoinis.

Woakes claimed 31.28 MVP points on the night, enough for him to move 0.17 clear of Stuart Broad at the top of the Overall MVP, meaning Woakes has won the award by the absolute narrowest of margins.

34-year-old Broad, who seems to be getting better with age, scored 146.5 MVP points at an average of 29.3 points-per-game during the summer when he took his 500th Test wicket.

Despite only making five Test appearances, also sitting out the first fixture of the international summer against the West Indies, Broad’s outstanding campaign proved enough for him to finish second, backing up his Test MVP award won last summer.

Broad finishes 25.5 points clear of Jos Buttler, who has appeared 11 times for England in all formats this summer, in third place, whilst Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow complete the top five.

The MVP Rankings were designed by the PCA in conjunction with the players to identify the match-winning performers in any given fixture. On top of traditional batting and bowling averages, bonus points are awarded for key disciplines such as scoring quickly, claiming top-order wickets and taking catches in the field.

The Rankings therefore give the most accurate reflection of the top performers in the game.

Broad was already named the Test MVP earlier this summer, whilst Dawid Malan won the T20I MVP following a string of excellent performances against both Pakistan and Australia.

England’s fourth and final MVP of the summer is David Willey. The all-rounder claims the ODI award with 92.26 MVP points at an average of 30.75 points-per-game.

Willey enjoyed an excellent three-match series against Ireland earlier in the summer, holding off the challenge of Sam Billings, who featured in twice as many ODI fixtures as the 50-over MVP this summer by virtue of appearing in the three-match series against Australia as well.

His personal highlight was a match-winning bowling performance against England’s next door neighbours on 30 July. Willey claimed career best ODI figures of 5-30 – removing four of the top six – as the Three Lions skittled their opposition for 172, eventually winning by six wickets.

Willey succeeds Joe Denly, who won the award in South Africa in February, whilst Woakes was the last England player to claim the prize on home soil last year.

View the England MVP Rankings here.

Keep up-to-date with all the latest MVP news by following the @pcaMVP on Twitter.