The Indian off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is one of the four cricketers who have been nominated by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for test cricketer of the year award 2021. Ashwin has already won this award once before in 2016, but he has a real good opportunity to win it again on the back of his fantastic performances in test cricket throughout the year.
Apart from Ashwin, three other cricketers who have been nominated for the award are the England captain Joe Root who scored 1708 test runs in 2021, the New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Jamieson who grabbed 27 wickets in 5 test matches including a match winning performance in the World Test Championship (WTC) final and the Sri Lankan captain Dimuth Karunaratne who averaged close to 70 with the bat in 9 test matches he played in the calendar year.
As far as Ravichandran Ashwin is concerned, he has 52 wickets to his name in 8 test matches in 2021 in varying conditions and it’s not just his contributions with the ball which make him a strong contender for test cricketer of the year award, Ashwin has also scored 337 runs for India in test matches this year, at an average of a tad over 28. His hundred in the Chennai test match against England was one of the turning points of the series.
Ravichandran Ashwin might become first Indian to win test cricketer of the year award twice
Joe Root is the only player who might leave Ashwin behind in the race for test cricketer of the year, as he has also made contributions with both bat and ball for England. While he has scored runs in almost every series throughout the year, Root also secured a 5-wicket haul with the ball earlier this year, when England toured India and the pitches were rank turners.
But, if Ashwin manages to win test cricketer of the year award in 2021, he will be the first Indian player to win this award twice. The other Indian players who have won test cricketer of the year award in the past are Rahul Dravid (2004), Gautam Gambhir (2009), Virender Sehwag (2010) and Virat Kohli (2018).
