Ravichandran Ashwin has wasted no time in making his mark in the Professional Cricketers’ Association Most Valuable Player Rankings.
Worcestershire’s new overseas player picked up eight wickets – including 5-68 in the second innings – of this week’s splendid win over Gloucestershire in the Specsavers County Championship.
It helped him make his first appearance in the PCA MVP rankings with a match haul of 41 points.
Ashwin earned 22 of the points for his second innings bowling but he also contributed important runs – 36 and 28 – in each innings which helped to boost his rankings total.
Either side of Ashwin’s bowling, opening batsman Daryl Mitchell made his fifth century of the season and picked up 24 more rankings points.
Mitchell, the PCA Chairman, nudged ahead of all-rounder Ed Barnard to become Worcestershire’s highest-placed player in the championship rankings.
Mitchell is now 17th with 170 points, a place and a point ahead of Barnard.
The 33-year-old is now 13th in the all-time overall rankings since the PCA MVP system was introduced in 2007.
He has 3,518 points in all competitions with Moeen Ali in 29th place on 3,075 points.
Josh Tongue is 38th in this season’s championship PCA MVP on 136 points with Joe Clarke 44th, Brett D’Oliveira 75th and Ben Cox 76th.
In this season’s overall PCA MVP, captain Joe Leach is Worcestershire’s highest-ranked player in 19th position with 330 points across all formats.
Mitchell is three places and 10 points behind Leach with D’Oliveira (34th), Cox (37th), Clarke (38th) and Barnard (46th) completing a strong Worcestershire contingent in the top 50.
John Hastings, who has returned home because of injury, also features in the top 100.
The PCA MVP Rankings system identifies the match-winners and key influencers of matches throughout the domestic season.
The formula takes into account conditions, quality of opposition, captaincy and strike-rates as well as runs scored and wickets taken.
