Roland-Jones goes straight into England PCA MVP top five

Roland-Jones goes straight into England PCA MVP top five Toby Roland-Jones has gone straight into the top five of England’s overall Professional Cricketers’ Most Valuable Rankings in Test cricket after his memorable debut against South Africa at the Kia Oval. The Middlesex seamer took eight wickets in the match, including five for 57 in South Africa’s innings, and ended his debut with 51 PCA MVP points. Roland-Jones earned 29 of those points for his first innings bowling but he also enjoyed himself with the bat, contributing 48 runs in the match over a run-a-ball, to collect 14 batting points. Roland-Jones’ haul at the Oval followed an encouraging One Day International debut against South Africa at Lord’s in May where he made a run-a-ball 37 and took one for 37 on his first appearance for England. He is now tenth in this summer’s overall England PCA MVP with 67 points with Joe Root, England’s new Test captain, leading the table with 209 points across all formats. 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. Moeen Ali is top of England’s Test rankings with 94 points having wrapped up victory at the Oval by taking a hat-trick, the first in the 100 Tests played at the ground. He ended the match with 18 PCA MVP and will take a 12 points lead into Friday’s fourth and final Test at Emirates Old Trafford. Ben Stokes is second in both England’s overall and Test rankings having earned 48 points for his all-round efforts at the Oval. Half of Stokes’ points came for his match-turning first innings 112 from 153 balls. New ball partners James Anderson (2,218) and Stuart Broad (2,142) continue to lead the way as England’s leading career points-earners in Test cricket since the PCA MVP Rankings were introduced in 2007. But opening batsman Alastair Cook is closing in on the 2,000 points landmark and needs only 75 more to join Anderson and Broad in the exclusive club. Broad and Anderson also top England’s overall PCA MVP points table with 3,307 and 3,052 respectively with Cook third on 2,486 points. To see the full MVP table click here.