ICC Awards: Ashwin, Root, Jamieson, Karunaratne Nominated For Men's Test Player Of The Year 2021

NEW DELHI: The candidates for the ICC Men's Test Player of the Year 2021 were released by the International Cricket Council on Tuesday, with India's Ravichandran Ashwin among them.

Other contenders were England's Joe Root, New Zealand's Kyle Jamieson, and Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne.

In 2021, Ravichandran Ashwin, a right-handed Indian batsman and one of the finest match-winners in the longer format, reasserted his status as one of the best spinners in the globe.

Apart from his ball-handling skills, Ashwin made a significant contribution to the bat. In eight matches, the Indian spinner got 52 wickets at an average of 16.23 and scored 337 runs at 28.08 with one century. England's Test captain Joe Root was nominated for the award after amassing 1,708 runs in 15 matches in 2021, including six hundreds.

Only Mohammad Yousuf and Sir Vivian Richards have scored more than 1,700 runs in a calendar year than Joe Root in 2021.

Kyle Jamieson of New Zealand is the other candidate, having taken 27 wickets in five matches at an average of 17.51 overs. In 2021, he also became one of cricket's most promising fast bowling prospects.

With 902 runs at 69.38 and four hundreds in seven matches, Sri Lankan Test skipper Dimuth Karunaratne is the penultimate contender for the award.

A stunning century against South Africa in Johannesburg, two hundreds against Bangladesh in two matches at Pallekele, including a doubleton, and a century against the West Indies in Galle are among Karunaratne's highlights this year.

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