Bumrah and Mandhana get Wisden Cricket’s highest honour India duo take accolades in latest edition of Wisden Cricket’s Almanack.
Bumrah and Mandhana have received the highest honors from Wisden Cricket.
The Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2025 edition, released on Tuesday, has acclaimed India’s all-formats fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah as the Leading Men’s Cricketer in the World.
Wisden’s editor Lawrence Booth calls Bumrah “quite simply the star of the year” after he became the first Test bowler in history to take 200 wickets at an average of less than 20 per in 2024. He bowled India to victory in the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean in June and took 71 Test wickets at less than 15 apiece.
Booth wrote on Bumrah’s outstanding performance at the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, where he nearly carried India’s attack by himself by taking 32 wickets at 13.06, “”He was so lethal, so uniquely challenging – a stacatto of limbs somehow forming a symphony – that runs scored off him should have counted double … he laid a claim to be considered the greatest of all time.”
Smriti Mandhana, Bumrah’s countrywoman, completed an India double by winning the title of Wisden’s Leading Women’s Cricketer in the World. Mandhana set a record in 2024 by scoring 1659 runs in all formats, including four ODI hundreds, making it the most by a female player in a calendar year of international cricket. In June, she defeated South Africa by ten wickets, capping her efforts with a second Test century of 149.
Wisden’s oldest accolades, the Five Cricketers of the Year, which are determined by a player’s performance during the English home season and are awarded just once in their career, had a strong Surrey theme, while Nicholas Pooran was voted the Leading T20 Player in the World.