Premier fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah and batswoman Smriti Mandhana are the two Indian names among the five winners of the prestigious Wisden India Almanack Cricketer of the Year award which was announced on Friday.
The other winners from Asia are Pakistan batsman Fakhar Zaman, Sri Lankan batsman Dimuth Karunaratne and Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan.
The seventh edition of the annual cricket publication for 2019 and 2020 also features Mayank Agarwal for his stellar domestic run leading to a successful Test call-up.
Mandhana is the third woman to be named ‘Cricketer of the Year’, after Mithali Raj and Deepti Sharma.
Stalwarts Gundappa Viswanath and Lala Amarnath have been inducted into the Wisden India Hall of Fame.
Cricket Country: The Untold History of the First All India Team by Prashant Kidambi has been adjudged the Wisden India Book of the Year.
The Almanack reviewer described it as “a tribute to the game’s Indianness” that “superbly describes and analyses the tour (Indians in England 1911) and the politics that led up to it”.
