Five new cricketers have joined Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year list. But what does this mean? Or how much does this mean? I assure you it’s more than just a random magazine revealing their list of cut-above-the-rest cricketers. Wisden’s Almanack, colloquially known as Cricket’s Bible, announces five (or exceptionally less than that) cricketers each year who spellbound the world with their brilliant performances typically in the previous English season. What makes this more special is that no player can be (or has ever been) named in the list more than once in this elite list. But who are these five players this time?
Three of them belong to Australia including Mitchell Starc, Usman Khawaja, and Ashleigh Gardner. Can’t say we did not see that coming. The remaining two are England’s Mark Wood and Harry Brook. All five of these cricketers have influenced last year’s English cricketing season. In other words, in one way or another, all of these cricketers did well for, against, or in England during the yesteryear. Here’s a review of the performances that allowed these players an entry into this once-in-a-career club;
A fine wine ages like Mitchell Starc:
One of the Australian sides’ big guys. Stands 6 feet tall and loves to play havoc with batters. During the recent Ashes, he was phenomenal in helping Australia return with the urn. To think he was rested for the Edgbaston Test but still ended up as the series’ leading wicket-taker talks a lot about his significance and bowling forte. He took 23 wickets with each costing a tick above 27, with a five-wicket haul in the Headingley Test which made life difficult for England and brought them tantalizingly close to damnation (an average England fan stops to thank God for Chris Woakes and Harry Brook here). He ended his English tour with a Man of the Series award, the felicity of retaining the holy grail, and a renewed trust of his team in him on their nemesis’ land.
Usman Khawaja’s peak of a late-career renaissance:
Ashes 2023 was undoubtedly the peak of Usman Khawaja’s post-35 rejuvenation. Starting with a century in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston, Khawaja ended as the highest run-scorer of the series with his 496 runs at an average of 49.6. He must have rued the 4 runs that made him fall short of a Don Bradman-feat but that takes nothing away from the stability he provided his side with throughout the five-match series. His 77-run knock in the second inning of the Lord’s Test helped the Aussies put a record target of 371 on the scoreboard. Naturally, England fell short of chasing it down, helplessly watching the visitors get their second consecutive win which eventually caused the retention of the Ashes, to England’s lament.
Ashleigh Gardner; the only woman in Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year list
And rightly so. How else would you praise a performance for which even a Player of the Match award is not enough? It sounds almost like fiction, really; 12 wickets in a single Test match and 40 runs off of the willow to get the job done for her team. Barring Pakistan’s Shaiza Khan, no women cricketer has ever had a better bowling figure to show off than her 12-165. Including the Ashes T20Is and ODIs, the off-spinner took a total of 23 wickets and was the highest wicket-getter in the ODI as well as the Test Ashes series.
The pace menace Mark Wood
As the wise say, pace is pace yaar. No matter how advanced the game gets, which players grace it with their presence, what bowling variations get unearthed, and which rules keep the players within constraints, there will be nothing quite like pace. The sound of a bullet-fast ball cutting through the blanket of air will never cease to cast an unbreakable spell on every ear it reaches. And that is why Mark Wood is part of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year list. Despite missing the first two matches, Wood’s return in the Headingley Test amused every spectator. He made bowling 90mph jaffas look so easy. A 5-wicket haul in his homecoming made it certain that his searing pace spell made it safely to the record book. He took 14 wickets at an average of 20 and added 83 runs with his bat across the series to deny Australia their first Ashes win since 2001.
England had (has) a behind-the-scenes force in Harry Brook:
No centuries. No player of the match awards. No involvement in controversies. Nothing to make headlines amidst a happening Ashes series but Harry Brook still was one of the best batters throughout the Ashes series last year. Scoring with an average of 40.3, Brook accumulated 363 runs and remained consistently good for the Three Lions throughout five Test matches. The Leeds Test would have been a forgettable match for the English team, had Harry’s 75 off 93 not transpired for his team’s rescue after Mitchell Starc’s ruthless onslaught.
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