Ace India spinner R Ashwin, England captain Joe Root, New Zealand's Kylie Jamieson and Sri Lanka's Test skipper Dimuth Karunaratne have all been nominated for the ICC Men's Test Player of the Year 2021 award.
Ashwin, one of India’s best players, has been in fine form through 2021 with the ball and also made some fantastic contributions with the bat. Ashwin bagged 52 wickets in 8 matches at an average of 16.23 while scoring 337 runs at 28.08 with one century in Chennai against England.
Meanwhile Joe Root, who’s England team aren’t in the best of form in Australia, has scored 1708 runs in 15 matches and is only the third to score more than 1700 runs in a calendar year behind Mohammad Yousuf and Sir Vivian Richards.
Kyle Jamieson who scalped 27 wickets in 5 matches at 17.51 is the other nominee. Another brilliant addition to the Kiwi pace battery, 2021 was the year where Kyle Jamieson emerged as one of the most promising fast bowling prospects in world cricket. Jamieson, who played for RCB in the IPL, was instrumental in helping the Kiwis clinch the World Test Championship with 7 wickets in the game, which helped him bag the player of the match award as well.
The fourth nominee is the Sri Lanka’s Test skipper Dimuth Karunaratne who scored 902 runs in 7 matches at 69.38 with 4 centuries. A brilliant century in Johannesburg against South Africa, two against Bangladesh in as many matches in Pallekele, including a double ton, and yet another hundred against West Indies in Galle were some of the highlights for Karunaratne.
While only the nominees for the ICC Men’s Test cricketer of the Year has been announced, the rest are expected to be announced soon.
There are 13 different categories in the ICC awards for 2021.
The individual award categories are:
- Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year
- Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Emerging Men’s Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Emerging Women’s Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Men’s Associate Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Women’s Associate Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Spirit of Cricket Award
- ICC Umpire of the Year
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