Dubai, Dec 30 India’s fast-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has been nominated for 2024 ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year award. Apart from him, Sri Lanka all-rounder Kamindu Mendis and England batting duo of Joe Root and Harry Brook have been nominated for the prestigious honour.
Having returned to the Test arena through the Centurion Test against South Africa in 2023 after a back surgery kept him out, Bumrah dominated the bowling charts in the longer format in 2024 by picking 71 wickets in 13 Tests, the most scalps taken by a bowler this year.
Bumrah’s 71 scalps in 2024 is also the fifth most wickets taken by an Indian bowler in a Test calendar year, a list led by Kapil Dev, who picked 75 wickets in 18 matches in 1983. Be it in South Africa and Australia, or conditions back home, Bumrah was ever impressive.
In the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, Bumrah is leading the wicket-takers charts with 30 wickets at an average of 12.83. He also completed 200 Test wickets in Australia, becoming the fastest Indian pacer to achieve this feat.
Apart from the six-wicket haul against England at Visakhapatnam, Bumrah’s most memorable Test performance came in a captain’s display as he guided India to a mammoth 295-run win in Perth. After India were dismissed for 150 in the first innings, Bumrah wrested back control of the match with a five-wicket haul that bowled out Australia for 104.
With Australia chasing 534 in the fourth innings, Bumrah picked three wickets to get a memorable win for India. That performance won Bumrah the player of the match award and got him back to the top of the ICC Men’s Test Bowling Rankings.
Root, England’s premier batter, made 1556 runs from 17 Tests at an average of 55.57, his second-best annual run-tally in Tests after amassing 1708 runs in 2021. It was also the fifth instance of Root scoring over 1000 Test runs in a calendar year.
With six Test hundreds to go alongside five fifties, Root’s impressive run saw him become the joint-fifth highest century maker in Tests (36) alongside Rahul Dravid. In addition to his batting exploits, Root impressed by picking a four-wicket haul in the Test series against India.
His teammate Brook scored 1100 runs in 12 Tests at an average of 55, comprising three fifties and four hundred-plus scores, including a maiden triple century coming in Pakistan, and became England’s breakthrough batter in the format.
Mendis, meanwhile, earns a nomination after making 1049 runs from nine Tests at an average of 74.92. Apart from becoming the joint-third quickest to score 1000 Test runs - equalling Sir Don Bradman’s 13-innings mark to reach the milestone - Mendis scored twin hundreds in Sri Lanka’s 2-0 series sweep over New Zealand at home.
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