Photo Credit: Professional Cricketers’ Association
Jonny Bairstow tops the MVP Rankings in epic summer to remember.
Jonny Bairstow has won the 2022 LV= Insurance Test Player of the Summer courtesy of finishing the campaign as the number one player, statistically.
The Yorkshireman had a phenomenal summer in Test match cricket which included helping England chase down a record 378 against India in the fifth Test match to win the series.
England have enjoyed a fantastic Test summer winning six of their seven matches, the best return since 2004. The side has been brilliantly led by the new paring of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum who have seemingly changed England’s Test fortunes around. The results would not have been possible without the brilliant batting of Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root and of course the captaincy of Stokes.
The LV= Insurance Test Player of the Summer is selected by the PCA Most Valuable Player Rankings. The formula enables players to score or lose MVP points on every ball based on their expected performance for that ball in comparison to CricViz’s extensive historical database of Test match cricket.
Scoring four fabulous hundreds and amassing 681 runs at an average of 75.6 with a brilliant Test match strike rate of 96.6 and taking 12 catches, Bairstow is a worthy winner securing 193 points on the MVP table, a massive 26 points clear of second place.
Bairstow’s most entertaining innings of the summer came in the second LV= Insurance Test against New Zealand where he dominated proceedings in one of the most entertaining Test match innings ever. Bairstow was in ‘white-ball mode’ as he smashed 136 off just 92 balls including 14 fours and seven sixes to chase down 299 in 50 overs.
The 32-year-old won two Match MVP awards during his six games this summer. The first came in the third Test match against New Zealand where he scored a match winning 162 off 157 balls in the first innings and then chased down the target smashing 71 not out off 44 balls giving him 62 points on the MVP table – the highest amount scored this summer in Tests.
Bairstow’s second Match MVP award came in the fifth Test against India where he scored 106 in the first innings and then a tremendous 114 not out in the second innings to chase down a record score for England of 378.
Joe Root came second on the rankings with 167 MVP points, thanks to scoring 615 runs at an average of 68.3, which included three hundreds and taking 11 catches.
Root has been pivotal to England’s brilliant summer. In the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s, Root scored an unbeaten 115 to help England chase down 277 to win the game.
A brilliant 176 in the second Test was backed up with 86 not out in the third. The 31-year-old then smashed 142 not out against India with Bairstow in that record chase.
Just six points behind Root is Ben Stokes in third place with 161. The new England captain has taken an aggressive approach to leading the side this summer and the results speak for themselves.
Leading from the front with 368 runs and 18 wickets at an average of 25.7, Stokes is certainly deserving of a top three place.
The England skipper won two Match MVP awards, the first coming against New Zealand in the second Test where Stokes took two wickets and scored 46 and 75 not out off 70 balls which gave him 48 MVP points.
The 31-year-old’s second Match MVP award came against South Africa in the second Test where he took match figures of 4-47 and scored 103.
The final Test of the summer means that the Men’s International Overall Rankings have been finalised too. The top three are the same as the Test rankings with Bairstow topping the table on 267 points.
Other award winners alongside Bairstow in International cricket this summer where Moeen Ali, who won the Vitality Men’s IT20 Player of the Summer and Jos Buttler, who won the Royal London ODI Player of the Summer.
View the full Men’s International MVP table here.
