Pat Cummins crowned best cricketer on the planet
Australian captain Pat Cummins has had an extraordinary 12 months and his biggest accolade of all has just been announced.
Pat Cummins can’t stop winning things.
The Australian captain was on Friday morning named ICC cricketer of the year in a decision that nobody can argue against.
Cummins won the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy ahead of Travis Head and India duo Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja.
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Almost everything Cummins has touched has turned to gold since he took over the Test captaincy in 2021.
Even for him, 2023 was a standout year with Australia winning the World Test Championship final, winning the 2023 ODI World Cup and retaining the Ashes on enemy soil.
Meanwhile, Aussie opener Usman Khawaja has been named ICC men’s Test cricketer of the year for 2023.
Khawaja edged out tough competition from teammate Travis Head, India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and England’s Joe Root for the award
According to the ICC, Khawaja stood alone as the sole player to score more than 1000 Test runs in 2023 — finishing the year with 1210 runs from 13 matches.
Virat Kohli was named ICC ODI player of the year.
It comes after the ICC earlier this week announced five Australian players were selected in the men’s ICC Test team of the year for 2023, with Alex Carey’s selection the major surprise.
Carey has become a fixture behind the stumps for Australia and while he’s been near faultless with the gloves, his most noteworthy moment of 2023 came when he ran out Jonny Bairstow after his English counterpart wandered out of his crease at Lord’s.
No wicketkeeper had more dismissals than Carey in 2023. With 54 dismissals (44 catches and 10 stumpings) in 12 matches, Carey was head and shoulders above the rest, with the next keeper on the list – West Indies’ Joshua Da Silva – registering only 31 dismissals.
The 32-year-old also had a solid year with the bat, scoring 44 off 68 balls in the first and an unbeaten 66 in the second that took the game away from India in the World Test Championship Final.
He followed it up with another fifty against England in the first Ashes Test and finished the year on a high with a fifty against Pakistan.
Cummins was named captain of the ICC Test team of the year, while Usman Khawaja, Travis Head and Mitchell Starc were also selected.
Indian spin duo Ravindra Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin were picked, as was recently retired England fast bowler Stuart Broad.
Head and Adam Zampa were named in the ICC ODI team of the year, which featured three Indian bowlers, three Indian batters as well as South African pair Heinrich Klaasen and Marco Jansen.
Australia’s dominant women’s team featured heavily in the ICC ODI team of the year, with youngster Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Ash Garder and Annabel Sutherland all getting the nod.
Mooney, Perry, Gardner and fast bowler Megan Schutt were also named in the ICC women’s T20I team of the year.
The Australian Test summer wraps up with a day-night Test against the West Indies beginning on Thursday in Brisbane.
ICC Men’s Test team of the year
Usman Khawaja, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kane Williamson, Joe Root, Travis Head, Ravindra Jadeja, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Ravi Ashwin, Mitchell Starc, Stuart Broad
ICC Men’s ODI team of the year
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Travis Head, Virat Kohli, Daryl Mitchell, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Marco Jansen, Adam Zampa, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami
ICC Men’s T20I team of the year
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Phil Salt, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Suryakumar Yadav (c), Mark Chapman, Sikandar Raza, Alpesh Ramjani, Mark Adair, Ravi Bishnoi, Richard Ngarava, Arshdeep Singh
ICC Women’s ODI team of the year
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Phoebe Litchfield, Chamari Athapaththu (c), Ellyse Perry, Amelia Kerr, Beth Mooney (wk), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Ash Gardner, Annabel Sutherland, Nadine de Klerk, Lea Tahuhu, Nahida Akter
ICC Women’s T20I team of the year
Chamari Athapaththu (c), Beth Mooney (wk), Laura Wolvaardt, Hayley Matthews, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amelia Kerr, Ellyse Perry, Ash Gardner, Deepti Sharma, Sophie Ecclestone, Megan Schutt
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