Indian team’s star off-spin bowler Ravichandran Ashwin has been nominated by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for the Test Cricketer of the Year award.
There are a total of 4 players who have been nominated by the ICC. Along with Ravichandran Ashwin, England captain and star batsman Joe Root, New Zealand’s young and promising fast bowler Kyle Jamieson and Sri Lankan opener and their Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne is the 4th player in the list.
Ravichandran Ashwin nominated for ICC Test Cricketer of the Year 2021
Chennai-born 35-year-old Ashwin has taken a total of 52 wickets in Test cricket this year (before the 1st Test against South Africa). He has achieved this feat by playing 8 Test matches till this nomination. Apart from this, he has also contributed 337 runs with his bat, which includes a century against England when they visited India earlier this month.
Ashwin is one of the great match winning player for the Indian team. This year his figure could have been even better. But on the tour of England, captain Virat Kohli did not give him a place in the playing XI on a single occasion in the 4 Tests played against England. Despite this, by playing just 8 Tests, he has proved that he is still one of India’s finest spinners.
This year has been great for 35-year-old Ashwin. He started the year with his patient batting in the Sydney Test. He scored 29 runs off 128 balls in a difficult match and shared a useful partnership with Hanuma Vihari as India avoided their defeat and ended the match on a draw and then defeated Australia 2-1 in the series.
Apart from Ashwin, if we talk about the rest of the players in this list, then this year has been very good one for England captain Joe Root. He has scored 1708 runs in 15 Tests, while during this he has scored 6 centuries, including 2 double centuries.
Kyle Jamieson of New Zealand has taken 27 wickets in 5 Tests. Apart from them, the fourth name in this list is of Dimuth Karunaratne of Sri Lanka, who has played 7 Tests this year and scored 902 runs with 4 centuries, and has played an instrumental role in Sri Lanka’s success over the years.
