The much-awaited ICC cricket awards for the year 2016 will be announced later today and all eyes are on Joe Root, who is the favourite to win the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year.
The awards will be given to the cricketers based on their performances in the 12-month period between 14 September 2015 and 20 September 2016. Though there was no official shortlist announced by the ICC, it will be tough to look beyond Joe Root for the Cricketer of the Year award.
In the given period of 12 months, Root played 14 Tests and scored 1272 runs at an average of 55.30, the most by any cricketer. He also topped the run-getters list in ODIs by scoring 941 runs in 19 matches with 10 fifty-plus scores in that particular period. In total, Root has scored 2213 runs in the 12-month period.
In T20Is, Root had scored 349 runs in 11 innings at a strike-rate of 141.86, but it is unlikely that the panellists will consider the T20I performances for the ICC Cricketer of the year award.
Also read: How Jos Buttler became a crowd favourite at the MA Chidambaram Stadium (Chepauk) in Chennai
Apart from Root, David Warner (1675 runs), Steve Smith (1555 runs), Kane Williamson (1498 runs) and Moeen Ali (852 runs and 47 wickets) are in the reckoning to win this award. India’s Test skipper has scored 451 runs in 8 Tests and 626 ODI runs from 10 matches in the given period. Australian captain Steve Smith won this award last year.
Joe Root is also the favourite to win the ICC Test cricketer of the year and ICC ODI player of the year awards. India’s R Ashwin is in the race for the ICC Test Cricketer of the year award as he picked 48 wickets in 8 Tests..
The 2016 ICC awards will have 10 awards to be won and are supplemented by the two ICC Team of the Years (both Tests and ODIs). For the first time in history, ICC have announced the ICC Women's Team of the Year. New Zealand’s Suzie Bates won both the ICC Women’s ODI and T20I Player of the Year awards and became the first women’s cricketer to do so.
India’s Smriti Mandhana features in the ICC Women's Team of the Year led by West Indies’ Stafanie Taylor.
The list of awards is as follows. · Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year· ICC Test Cricketer of the Year· ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year- Suzie Bates· ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year· ICC Men's Twenty20 International Performance of the Year· ICC Women's Twenty20 International Cricketer of the Year- Suzie Bates· ICC Spirit of Cricket Award· David Shepherd Trophy for ICC Umpire of the Year· ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year· ICC Associate and Affiliate Cricketer of the Year· ICC Test Team of the Year· ICC ODI Team of the Year· ICC Women's Team of the Year
