Star Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who accounted for the dismissal of 71 batters in 13 Test matches last year, won the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year 2024 award. Bumrah was in red-hot form for India in the home series against England and the away series against Australia.
Bumrah kicked off the year 2024 with six wickets in the second innings of the Cape Town Test played against South Africa on January 4, 2024, and then picked up 19 wickets in four Tests against England. In the series opener played at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, Bumrah dismissed six batters (2+4), and in the second Test at Vizag, he finished with nine wickets (6+3). His superb show with the ball in Visakhapatnam not only helped him win the Player of the Match award but also become world No. 1 Test bowler.
Bumrah finished the two-match series against Bangladesh in September-October with 11 wickets, and in the first two matches of the New Zealand series, he picked up three wickets.
In the absence of Rohit Sharma, Bumrah led India in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and picked up eight wickets (5+3). Under his leadership, India hammered the Aussies by 295 runs inside four days to take a 1-0 lead in the series. Bumrah dismissed four Australian batters in the Day-Night Test played at Adelaide Oval from December 6-8 and finished with nine wickets each in the third (6+3) and fourth (4+5) Tests played at The Gabba and Melbourne Cricket Ground, respectively.
In addition to his bowling, Bumrah impressed with his batting as well in the first innings of the Brisbane Test and scored 10 runs as No. 10 batter to help India successfully avoid the follow-on.
Bumrah is the sixth Indian cricketer after Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Virat Kohli to win the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year award. Dravid was the first-ever recipient. He bagged the top prize in 2004, Gautam won it in 2009, Sehwag in 2010, Ashwin in 2016, and Kohli in 2018.
