Indian women’s team captain Harmanpreet Kaur was named among the five Cricketers of the Year announced in the Wisden Cricket Awards on Tuesday. Apart from Harman, the remaining four are men’s cricketers – Ben Foakes, Matthew Potts, Tom Blundell and Daryl Mitchell.
Notably, the Wisden Cricket Awards are annual awards given to the best cricketers, teams, and performances of the previous year. The awards are presented in various categories, including the Leading Cricketer in the World, Leading Test Batter, ODI Batter, Test Bowler, ODI Bowler, and the Leading T20I Cricketer.
The winners are chosen by a panel of experts, including former international cricketers, cricket journalists, and broadcasters, who vote for the nominees based on their performances in the previous year.
For the second time in three years, Beth Mooney, the Australian batter, has been recognized as the top women’s cricketer in the world. This honor comes as a result of her exceptional leadership skills that guided Australia to victory in both the 50-over and 20-over World Cup tournaments, as well as securing a gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Meanwhile, Harmanpreet earned her spot on the list primarily because of her remarkable performance at Canterbury, scoring 143 runs off 111 balls, which led India to their first ODI series victory on English soil since 1999. She also guided India to the finals of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where they ultimately settled for a silver medal after losing to Australia in the summit clash.
Overall, Mooney has appeared 4 Tests, 57 ODIs and 83 T20Is for Australia where she has managed to score 184, 1941, 2350 runs, respectively. She has 3 ODI tons and 2 T20I centuries to her name alongwith 33 half-centuries across the formats. Similarly, Harmanpreet has 3322 ODI runs and 3058 T20I runs in 124 and 152 matches, respectively. She has smashed six international hundreds and 27 half-centuries.
