T20 BLAST TEAM OF THE WEEK: Martin Guptill is the obvious choice but who else makes the cut?

The Cricketer picks out the top performers at the end of a week of T20 Blast action

Martin Guptill (Worcestershire): It’s tough on Riki Wessels, whose 29-ball 74 was every bit as brutal as Martin Guptill’s unbeaten 86 off just 31 deliveries. However, Guptill’s sudden reinvigoration after two of the tougher weeks of his professional career squeeze him in ahead of his Worcestershire teammate.

A player of his undoubted ability was always likely to come good. The same can be said of Wessels, who had also endured a lean streak before the pair took down Durham on Sunday. Their 148-run stand took just 8.5 overs – a display of sheer ruthlessness from two of the hardest hitters around. The Rapids were brutal, hitting 29 boundaries in 73 balls as they raced past Durham’s total of 181.

Scott Steel (Durham): On the day that Guptill went berserk, Scott Steel experienced his first failure in his maiden Blast campaign. It will be a surprise to nobody who witnessed the 20-year-old’s encouraging One-Day Cup campaign to see the Durham-born right-hander enjoying a similarly fruitful start to T20 life.

Consecutive fifties against Lancashire and Leicestershire have been the standout efforts from Steel, who sits as the competition’s third top run-scorer even at this early stage. Curiously, having not hit a single six in a Royal London season that garnered 227 runs in seven innings, Steel has hit 10 of the 110 balls he has faced in Blast over the rope.

Dawid Malan (Middlesex): Go and find a better T20 knock than Dawid Malan’s 117 against Surrey at The Oval. I dare you. Malan knew how well he had played as well. After the match, he bore a smile as wide as the ground’s vast expanse.

It was hard to blame him; he said it himself – T20 hundreds are a rarity. His was perfection. Dropped once on the midwicket boundary, chances were a scarcity as he helped himself against a bowling attack featuring Tom Curran, Liam Plunkett and Imran Tahir.

Where there was a gap, he found it. Where there were fielders, he cleared them. It was an immensely watchable effort; a lot of runs and all courtesy of proper cricket shots. He hardly premeditated and he never attempted to overhit the ball. It was exhibition stuff from the England left-hander. With a World T20 coming over the horizon and into hazy view, Malan’s name will surely crop up.

^{Babar Azam has had a major impact in his brief stay at Somerset}

Babar Azam (Somerset): Four games in and the competition’s top run-scorer, it is hardly a surprise. A glorious watch, a member of batsmanship’s magic circle, to experience the work of Babar Azam – in partnership with the mightily precocious talent of Tom Banton – is to gaze into some level of cricketing perfection.

His on-drive is a work of art; a rare failure against Kent apart, Babar has lived up to all expectation. Scores of 83 and 95 – both in a losing cause, however – have given fuel to the hype.

Alex Carey (wk, Sussex): All things considered, quite a debut for the Australian wicketkeeper. Flown to Geneva in order to rubberstamp his UK visa, Carey flew back to England, before being taken to Taunton in time for his Sussex bow. Four hours later, it had been worth the trip. He smashed 78 rapid runs as a hugely impressive Sussex outfit added another string to its bow.

Carey comes with serious pedigree – not just of runs during Australia’s World Cup campaign, but as a star of the Big Bash, where he played a key role in Adelaide Strikers’ victory in 2018. Excluded from Justin Langer’s Ashes squad, Sussex will be thrilled.

Liam Livingstone (Lancashire): By no means the best numbers of those picked in this week’s team, but Liam Livingstone’s impact on his Lancashire side since returning from an intercostal injury has been plain to see. His batting is a selfless exercise – he sacrifices himself for the greater good. If there is a criticism, it is that each stroke possesses almost too much physical strain.

A little less brute force and a tad more subtlety and Livingstone’s useful contributions could – and would – become something more tangibly substantial. His off-spin remains a useful, canny, wicket-taking tool.

^{Alex Carey made 78 on his debut for Sussex}

Tom Curran (Surrey): As far as T20 hat-tricks go, there will be few better than Tom Curran’s against Glamorgan last week. Marchant de Lange finished Surrey’s innings with three wickets in four balls – another staggering feat, though those were lower-order scalps as heads went and front legs were cleared. Curran’s wickets, however, were proper deliveries, proper dismissals.

David Lloyd was castled by one that swung in and nipped away, before Colin Ingram and Billy Root – the fulcrum of Glamorgan’s batting – edged to Rikki Clarke’s buckets at first slip. His celebration was one for the ages.

“The crowd were going mad and it was an unbelievable moment getting the hat-trick,” he reflected afterwards. “I felt a bit knackered though after running all that way in celebration!”

Hardus Viljoen (Kent): A cracking import for Kent, Hardus Viljoen is a more rounded cricketer than the hulking fast bowler who represented the county back in 2016 during his first stint with the club. He is back, fast and immensely accurate, with the Spitfires clinging onto a 100 percent record in this year’s Blast.

It was his delivery that prized out Babar Azam, zipping through the Pakistan star’s gate when Kent met Somerset, continuing an extraordinary hold over their opponents – Tom Abell’s side has never won at Canterbury in T20 cricket. Viljoen, who represented Kings XI Punjab in this year’s IPL, has already suggested that he could be tempted to stay on at the county as a red-ball option.

Toby Roland-Jones (Middlesex): Never truly a feted T20 bowler in the past, Toby Roland-Jones has begun his Blast campaign as he finished the latest block of County Championship fixtures. It is a lovely tale for a man whose cricketing life had been put on hold by constant back problems, which seriously threatened the continuation of his own career.

And yet, here he sits as the competition’s top wicket-taker after four games. A five-wicket haul against Glamorgan followed four scalps in his side’s Malan-inspired win at Surrey. In an unusually well-organised Middlesex T20 side, he has become an unlikely key cog.

^{Hardus Viljoen is in his second spell with Kent}

Reece Topley (Sussex): A wonderful ending to a horror story, Reece Topley is back. The left-armer’s return has been a heartwarming episode after years of painful frustration and frustrated pain. His wickets against Hampshire – he picked up four of them – were his first in T20 cricket since 2017, the year after he formed part of England’s squad at the 2016 World T20.

Since then, it has been a battle with back problems – a contest he appeared to be losing. However, after pitching up at Sussex, he has been superb. Swinging the new white ball into the right-handed batsmen, his skill did for the trio of Aneurin Donald, James Vince and Sam Northeast, taking three wickets in four deliveries.

Another left-armer in Tymal Mills, unfortunate not to make it into this side, has also been back to his roaring best. The England selectors will be keeping tabs on him – 93mph yorkers don’t grow on trees.

Harry Gurney (Nottinghamshire): One of the best in the world, these days. Dan Christian went further than that after Harry Gurney inspired Melbourne Renegades to Big Bash glory earlier this year. “He's an absolute gun. He's the best death bowler I've played with anywhere around the world,” the Australian allrounder said of the Nottinghamshire left-armer.

The 32-year-old has been at his very best thus far. After starting slowly, Nottinghamshire have picked up; that is in no small part down to the contribution of their IPL seamer. Unusually expensive in the shortened game against Leicestershire, those figures came a day after Gurney took five wickets against Derbyshire for the first time in his career.

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