Ace Indian spinner R Ashwin has been nominated for the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year award for 2023 along with England’s Joe Root and Australian duo of Travis Head and Usman Khawaja.
Winner of the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year in 2016, R Ashwin took 41 wickets in 7 Tests in 2023 for India. His best outing had some in the home Test series against Australia where he took 25 wickets in four matches to help India retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
He also became the highest wicket-taker for India against Australia in Test cricket with 114 wickets, surpassing Anil Kumble with 111. He was named the Player of the Series as well. However, he missed out on playing in the World Test Championship Final in June.
Then in the two Test series against West Indies, R Ashwin picked 12 wickets in the first Test and followed that up with fifty and three wickets in the next match. He is also the no.1 ranked Test bowler at the moment.
The other nominees for the ICC Test cricketer of the year are Australia’s Travis Head who was excellent in Tests in 2023 with 919 runs in 12 matches. His teammate Usman Khawaja had an equaling rewarding year in Tests in 2023. He made 1210 runs in 13 Tests including his career-best 195* against South Africa.
The fourth and final nominee is England’s ace batter Joe Root, who scored 787 runs and took 8 wickets in 8 Test matches in 2023.
The four nominees for the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year 2023 are India’s Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, Australia’s Pat Cummins and Travis Head.
Virat Kohli had an exemplary year with 2048 runs in 35 international matches. He scored two Test hundreds, against Australia and West Indies. But the best of his performances came in ODIs where he hit 6 centuries this year and overhauled Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI tons.
He became the first batter to have 50 ODI centuries. His stupendous run in the World Cup, helped India reach the finals. The batter hit 765 runs, the most by any player in any single edition of the World Cup.
Ravindra Jadeja was excellent with both the bat and the ball. In 2023, Jadeja made 613 runs and took 66 wickets in 35 matches. He picked 22 wickets in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and played an important role in India winning the series. He also played a brilliant knock of 70 in the Nagpur Test.
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With 31 ODI wickets, Jadeja shined in white-ball cricket too, which included 16 wickets in the World Cup 2023, with a career-best performance of 5/33 against South Africa at the Eden Gardens.
Australia captain Pat Cummins did it all this year in international cricket by leveling the Ashes, winning the World Test Championship final, and then defeating India in the final of World Cup 2023. He also picked 59 wickets in 24 matches this year.
The final nominee for ICC Cricketer of the Year is Travis Head. He made 1698 runs in 31 matches in 2023. He made a century in the WTC final, earning Player of the Match. Both of his ODI centuries came in the global event. He was the Player of the Match for his amazing performances in the semi-final and the final.
(ICC inputs)
