Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah and star batter Joe Root are among the four nominated for the Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year award for 2024 by the International Cricket Council. Bumrah appears to be the frontrunner to win the honour after a sensational year with the red ball.

England’s young batting sensation Harry Brook and Sri Lanka’s batting hero Kamindu Mendis complete the four-man shortlist for the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year award.

The nominees for the Test honour were confirmed by the ICC, a day after Arshdeep Singh and Babar Azam featured in the list of nominees for the Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year award.

Featuring across 13 Tests in the calendar year, Bumrah delivered his best-ever annual tally – 71 wickets – finishing the year with more Test wickets than any of his counterparts.

Bumrah has been the standout bowler in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series between Australia and India taking 30 wickets in four matches, 10 more than the nearest rival and opposition captain Pat Cummins.

Bumrah also led India to a victory in his second Test as captain. Standing in for Rohit Sharma in the series opener in Perth, Bumrah was lethal with the ball and switched on tactically as India hammered Australia by 290 runs.

TWO ENGLAND BATTERS IN CONTENTION

Joe Root, meanwhile, continued his golden run with the bat. Across 17 Tests, he compiled his second-best annual run-tally in Tests – second only to his 1708 runs from 2021. It was also the fifth instance of Root scoring over 1000 Test runs in a calendar year.

With six Test hundreds to go alongside five half-centuries, Root was a consistent performer for England – both home and away.

Sri Lanka’s Kamindu Mendis had a breakthrough year in 2024.

Putting in a admirable performances both home and away, Mendis boasted incredible numbers. The most notable was him becoming the joint-third quickest to score 1000 Test runs – equalling Sir Don Bradman’s 13-innings mark to reach the milestone.

Mendis averaged more than any of the batters who played more than two Tests in the calendar year – a staggering 74.92 from nine matches.

Meanwhile, Harry Brook, the flagbearer of England’s Bazball approach, became the No. 1-ranked batter in Tests for the first time in his career in 2024.

The 25-year-old scored 1100 runs at a strike rate of 85.00, comprising three fifties and four hundred plus scores, which also included a maiden triple century.