Star India batter Smriti Mandhana was on Monday announced as the Women's Cricketer of the Year 2021 and the winner of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy in the list of awards announced by the sport's global governing body. The left-handed aggressive batter in the Indian Women's cricket team amassed 855 runs across 22 international matches, averaging an impressive 38.86 while hitting one century and five half-centuries.
The global cricket governing body said on its website, “Despite India enduring a difficult 2021, Smriti Mandhana's stock continued to rise this year.”
As India's Women's cricket team returned to Test cricket, Smriti marked the occasion by smacking 244 runs in only two matches with one century and a half-century, averaging a whopping 61 in the longest format. In ODI cricket, Smriti scored 352 runs in 11 matches while averaging 35.20 and her highest score of 86. In 9 T20 Internationals, the star India batter smacked 255 runs with an average of 31.87 with two fifties, thus marking an extremely successful year for herself with the bat.
There was a lot of good news in store for Pakistan, as their captain Babar Azam was named the Men's ODI Player of the Year, their explosive wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan was named the Men's T20I Player of the Year, Fatima Sana was named the Emerging Women's Cricketer of the Year and left-arm fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi was awarded with the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the Player of the Year 2021.
Among the other winners in the global cricket governing body's award list were South Africa opening batsman Janneman Malan, who won the Emerging Men's Cricketer of the Year award, Oman's Zeeshan Maqsood was named the Men's Associate Cricketer of the Year, Austria's Andrea-Mae Zepeda was named the Women's Associate Cricketer Of the Year.
England had a terrible year in Test cricket in 2021 but their captain Joe Root did manage to bring some accolades to his side apart from the record runs that he scored.
The England captain threatened to break former Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf’s record of most Test runs in a calendar year. Yousuf had set the record in 2006 when he scored a mind-boggling 1,788 runs in 11 Tests with a whopping average of 99.33, hitting 9 centuries and 3 sixes in a total 19 innings.
On his part, Root fell short by just 80 runs as he finished the year 2021 with 1,708 runs in 15 Tests, hitting 6 centuries and 4 fifties in 29 innings while averaging an impressive 61. Root is now placed third in the list of highest run-getters in Test cricket in a calendar year.
Root was named the Men's Test Player of the Year for his splendid performance with the bat and also the fact that he remained at the helm of a side which failed repeatedly but still managed to make tours of India, Sri Lanka and Australia (for the Ashes 2021-22) despite the challenges thrown by the coronavirus pandemic.
England's Tammy Beaumont was named the Women's T20I player of the Year as well.
Teams of the Year:
Men’s Test Team 2021: Dimuth Karunaratne (SL), Rohit Sharma (India), Marnus Labuschagne (AUS), Joe Root (ENG), Kane Williamson (NZ), Fawad Alam (PAK), Rishabh Pant (IND, WK), Ravichandran Ashwin (IND), Kyle Jamison (NZ), Hasan Ali (PAK) and Shaheen Afridi (PAK).
Men’s ODI Team 2021: Janneman Malan (SA), Paul Stirling (IRE), Babar Azam (PAK, C), Rassie Van der Dussen (SA), Fakhar Zaman (PAK), Shakib Al-Hasan (BAN), Wanindu Hasaranga (SL), Mushfiqr Rahim (BAN, WK), Mustafizur Rahman (BAN), Dushmantha Chameera (SL) and Simi Singh (IRE).
Men’s T20I Team 2021: Paul Stirling (IRE), Babar Azam (Pakistan, C), Mohammad Rizwan (PAK, WK), Mitchell Marsh (AUS), Aiden Markram (SA), David Miller (SA), Tabraiz Shamsi (SA), Wanindu Hasaranga (SL), Josh Hazlewood (AUS), Shaheen Afridi (Pak), Mustafizur Rahman (BAN).
Women’s ODI Team of 2021: Lizelle Lee (SA), Alyssa Healy (AUS), Tammy Beaumont (ENG), Mithali Raj (IND), Heather Knight (ENG, C), Marizanne Kapp (SA), Hayley Matthews (WI), Fatima Sana (PAK), Jhulan Goswami (IND), Shabnim Ismail (SA) and Anisa Mohammed (WI).
Women’s T20I Team of 2021: Smriti Mandhana (IND), Danni Wyatt (ENG), Tammy Beaumont (ENG), Gaby Lewis (IRE), Amy Jones (ENG, WK), Nat Sciver (ENG, C), Marizanne Kapp (SA), Laura Wolvaardt (SA), Sophie Ecclestone (ENG), Shabnim Ismail (SA) and Loryn Phiri (ZIM).
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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