India batter Suryakumar Yadav was named as T20 Cricketer of the Year in the 2023 edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, published on Tuesday (April 18).
Suryakumar took the cricketing world by storm with his batting exploits in the shortest format of the game last year. The dashing right-hander played 31 T20I innings in 2022, amassing 1164 runs at an average of 46.56 and a remarkable strike rate of 187.43, including two hundreds and nine half-centuries.
As a result, Surya, who currently occupies the No. 1 position in the ICC T20I batting rankings, earned the ICC Men’s T20I Player of the Year honour for 2022.
England’s ace all-rounder Ben Stokes was named the Wisden Almanack’s leading men’s cricketer in the world for the third time in four years.
Stokes was selected for his dynamic captaincy of England’s Test team last year, as well as his match-winning performance in the T20 World Cup 2022 final.
The all-rounder, who appears on the cover of the 160th edition of Wisden alongside England Test head coach Brendon McCullum, previously won the award in 2019 and 2020.
Under Stokes, the Three Lions defeated New Zealand and South Africa at home and also won the one-off Test against India at Edgbaston last year.
With the ultra-aggressive approach, the Stokes-led side whitewashed Pakistan 3-0 in an away Test series and followed it with a 1-1 series draw on the tour of New Zealand.
Stokes also made his mark in white-ball cricket, helping England clinch the T20 World Cup 2022 title Down Under with a half-century in the final against Pakistan.
“It’s hard to think of any other cricketer who could have transformed his team’s fortunes so suddenly as Ben Stokes," Wisden editor Lawrence Booth said.
“When he took over the Test captaincy, England had won one game in their previous 17. By the time they had become the first visiting side to win 3-0 in Pakistan, they had won nine out of 10, and were playing with unprecedented style and verve."
Stokes’ teammate Jonny Bairstow was the inaugural recipient of the new Wisden Trophy, awarded for the outstanding individual Test performance, after his twin centuries against India at Edgbaston.
Australia’s Beth Mooney was named the leading women’s cricketer in the world for the second time while India’s Harmanpreet Kaur was one of the five overseas cricketers of the year named by Wisden alongside Ben Foakes, Matthew Potts, Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell.
