Mumbai, April 11 The Wisden while naming the Five Cricketers of the Year in 2019 gave Indias ODI deputy Rohit Sharma a miss and it came as a huge surprise because Rohit hit five hundreds in the 2019 World Cup and former India batsman V.V.S. Laxman has said the same, calling the move a shocker.
Speaking on Rohit Sharma not featuring in Wisden Cricketers of the Year list, Laxman said on Star Sports show Cricket Connected: "I think anyone who follows the game of cricket will be surprised and shocked not to see Rohit Sharma's name in those five players list. The Ashes is an important series, the World Cup is bigger than Ashes. And someone who has scored five hundred; remember the first hundred was on a tough wicket in Southampton against South Africa and none of the other batsmen got runs. And he played another important knock against Pakistan. I am really shocked and surprised, and every cricketer will be shocked and surprised by this announcement from Wisden."
England's Ben Stokes and Ellyse Perry of Australia were on Wednesday named the Leading Cricketers of 2019 by Wisden Almanack.
Stokes became the first English cricketer after Andrew Flintoff since 2005 to win the award whereas Perry, the star Australian all-rounder, had won the award previously in 2016 and has thus become the first woman to claim the award twice.
Across the 2019 calendar, Stokes hit 821 Test runs at 45, including an Ashes hundred at Lord's, and 719 in ODIs at almost 60.
Perry, on the other hand, raised the bar a notch higher, scoring a century (plus 76 not out) in her only Test, and two more (both unbeaten) in ODIs, where she averaged 73. From six T20 international innings, she was dismissed once, averaging 150. On top of that were 21 one-day wickets at 13 apiece, and six in T20s.
Meanwhile, hard-hitting West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell was named T20 Leading Cricketer of 2019. Last year, Russell took 46 wickets and scored 1,080 runs in T20 matches.
Along with Perry, Wisden named Pat Cummins, Marnus Labuschagne, Jofra Archer and Simon Harmer as the Five Cricketers of the Year.
( With inputs from IANS )