Hyderabad:Jasprit Bumrah is the only Indian cricketer to receive multiple nominations for the ICC Cricketer of the Year awards, which were announced by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday, December 30. He has been nominated for the most prestigious honour, the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for Men’s Cricketer of the Year, and he is also on the four-man shortlist for the ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year Award for 2024.
England batters Harry Brook and Joe Root will square off with Jasprit Bumrah in both categories. However, former India off-spinner R Ashwin feels that Bumrah is the frontrunner to clinch the Test honour.
If Bumrah wins the Sir Garfield Sobers Award, he will become the fifth Indian to do so, after Rahul Dravid (2004), Sachin Tendulkar (2010), Virat Kohli (2017 and 2018), and R Ashwin (2016).
Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh (Men's T20I Cricketer of the Year Award), Smriti Mandhana (Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year) and Shreyanka Patil (Women's Emerging Cricketer of the Year) are the other 3 Indians in the list of nominees for ICC Awards 2024.
Bumrah was exceptional with the ball, across all formats in 2024. He played an instrumental role in India's T20 World Cup 2024 triumph that ended their 12-year ICC Trophy-less streak. Bumrah picked 15 wickets at an average of 8.24 in the T20 World Cup, which India won under Rohit Sharma's captaincy. In Test cricket, Bumrah has had a career-defining year. The Indian pacer picked 71 wickets in 13 Tests, finishing with more scalps than any of his counterparts.
Bumrah has been the pick of the bowler in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series between Australia and India taking 30 wickets in just 4 matches, 10 more than the second in the list, opposition captain Pat Cummins. Not only this, Bumrah also led India to a victory in his second Test as captain.
