DUBAI (UAE): The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday announced the nominees for the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy.
Australia’s Travis Head, Pat Cummins, India’s stalwart batter Virat Kohli, and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja have been nominated for the coveted accolade.
Australia’s match-winner Travis Head became the second nominee on the back of his sensational performances in red-ball cricket. In 31 matches the left-handed batter amassed 1698 runs which also saw him lift the World Test Championship trophy and World Cup trophy against India.
2023 marked Head’s most prolific run in Test cricket since making his debut in 2018. After kicking off the year on a positive note by scoring a half-century against South Africa, Head went on to leave his mark in the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
When the rest of the batters struggled against India’s clinical spin set-up, Head stuck to his aggressive style of play in three outings and was one of the three Australian batters who scored 200 runs.
Head’s sole ton in the format came during Australia’s World Test Championship final against India. With India making early inroads, Head, came in to stabilize Australia’s sinking ship and raced to a century off just 106 balls.
In the ODI format, 329 out of his 570 runs came in the World Cup. His strike rate during the tournament was an impressive 127.51. His 137 in the World Cup final proved crucial as Australia lifted their record-extending sixth title.
Head will get a tough competition from Virat Kohli who became the first batter to score more than 2000 runs in seven calendar years.
Throughout the year, Virat churned out runs in the Test as well as the ODI format. In the final game of the Border Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli struck a majestic 186 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. This was his first Test ton since 2019. He went on to score 121 against the West Indies.
He went on to hit six ODI hundreds, finishing with 50 tons in the format. This helped him become the player with the most hundreds in the 50-over format, which saw him surpass India maestro Sachin Tendulkar.
Kohli’s compatriot, Ravindra Jadeja scored 613 runs and 66 wickets in 35 matches. The experienced all-rounder picked 22 wickets during India’s triumph Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
With 31 ODI wickets in his kitty, Jadeja stood out in white-ball cricket too. He picked 16 wickets at 24.87 in the World Cup, with a career-best performance of 5/33 against South Africa at the Eden Gardens.
Finally, Australia’s World Cup-winning captain Pat Cummins had a year of a lifetime as he guided the Baggy Greens to the WTC success as well as their sixth World Cup title.
In the ODIs, he played several crucial knocks lower down the order, while also making crucial breakthroughs in his economic spells.
Cummins signed off a remarkable year with his second 10-wicket haul in Test cricket. This helped Australia win the Test series against Pakistan. (ANI)