India’s pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has been awarded with the Sir Garfield Sobers award for the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year 2024. The 31-year-old overcame stiff competition from the likes of Joe Root, Travis Head and Harry Brook who were the other contenders for the award. Bumrah became only the fifth Indian to win the award after Rahul Dravid (2004), Sachin Tendulkar (2010), Ravichandran Ashwin (2016) and Virat Kohli (2017,18)
Bumrah had an exceptional 2024 where he dominated across formats, notably Tests and T20Is, while also playing a monumental role in India’s World Cup win in the shortest format. With 15 wickets at a staggering average of 8.26 and a frugal economy of 4.17, Bumrah was Player of the Tournament at the 2024 T20 World Cup. His contributions across the tournament were of high impact value, most importantly in the league game against Pakistan and in the all-important final against South Africa.
Much like in T20Is, Bumrah also ran riot in Tests, aggregating a whopping 71 wickets in the calendar year, 19 more than the next-best bowler Gus Atkinson. This tally was also the second-best by an Indian pacer in a year after Kapil Dev. Bumrah’s relentless success and impact levels saw him surge to No.1 in the player rankings and he also breached the coveted 900-point barrier, the highest for any Indian bowler in Test history. Bumrah also went past 200 wickets at a bowling average surpassed by none, setting new benchmarks in the process. For his exploits, he also won the ICC Test Player of the Year.
The first half of 2024 was about Bumrah’s exploits in white-ball cricket, mainly T20Is including the World Cup before he set the longest format on fire. The recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia was a prime example of the pacer’s standalone impact. He returned 32 wickets across the five Tests and while India lost the series 1-3, Bumrah’s performances across the series were pivotal to India’s competitiveness amidst a flurry of flaws and concerns.
ICC Men’s Test Team of the Year: Yashasvi Jaiswal (Ind), Ben Duckett (Eng), Kane Williamson (NZ), Joe Root (Eng), Harry Brook (Eng), Kamindu Mendis (SL), Jamie Smith (Eng) (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (Ind), Pat Cummins (Aus) (c), Matt Henry (NZ), Jasprit Bumrah (Ind)
Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s Azmatullah Omarzai has been named ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Year while Sri Lankan all-rounder Kamindu Mendis won the ICC Emerging Men’s Cricketer of the Year. He had a record-breaking spell that saw the Sri Lankan become the fastest player to reach 1,000 Test runs in 75 years. He scored 1,049 runs in nine Tests, and also became the first player to hit a half-century in each of his first eight matches. Elsewhere, Namibia’s captain Gerhard Erasmus won the ICC Men’s Associate Cricketer of the Year.
ICC Men’s ODI Team of the Year: Saim Ayub (Pak), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Afg), Pathum Nissanka (SL), Kusal Mendis (SL) (wk), Charith Asalanka (SL) (c), Sherfane Rutherford (WI), Azmatullah Omarzai (Afg), Wanindu Hasaranga (SL), Shaheen Shah Afridi (Pak), Haris Rauf (Pak), AM Ghazanfar (Afg)
India’s Arshdeep Singh was named the Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year. The 25-year-old left-arm pacer bagged 36 wickets in T20Is in 2024 at a stunning average of 13.50, which included 17 wickets in India’s victorious T20 World Cup campaign.
ICC Men’s T20I Team of the Year: Rohit Sharma (Ind) (c), Travis Head (Aus), Phil Salt (Eng), Babar Azam (Pak), Nicholas Pooran (WI) (wk), Sikandar Raza (Zim), Hardik Pandya (Ind), Rashid Khan (Afg), Wanindu Hasaranga (SL), Jasprit Bumrah (Ind), Arshdeep Singh (Ind)
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