West Indies young sensation Shamar Joseph wins ICC Men's Player of the Month award for January 2024

The accolades continue to grow for West Indian young sensation Shamar Joseph after being voted ICC Men's Player of the Month for January.

Joseph overcame competition from Josh Hazlewood and Ollie Pope to emerge victorious in his first month of international cricket. Despite limited first-class experience, the West Indies picked Joseph for the two-Test series in Australia.

In the first Test at Adelaide, the youngster immediately displayed tremendous fortitude by scoring a crucial 36 at No.11 in West Indies' first innings. Joseph's first Test bowling stint was even better as he picked a five-wicket haul to keep the visitors alive in the contest.

Although they suffered a 10-wicket defeat, it set Joseph up for one of the most memorable red-ball performances in the following Test at Brisbane. After a quiet first innings with only a lone wicket, the pacer suffered a toe injury in the West Indian second innings, thanks to a Mitchell Starc yorker.

Yet, Joseph remained unflappable as he battled pain to produce an all-time great spell of 7/68 in the final innings to lead the Caribbean side to a thrilling eight-run win. The Aussies were cruising at 113/2 in their run chase of 216 when Joseph came to bowl and wrecked the hosts' batting single-handedly with seven of the final eight wickets falling.

Joseph finished the two-match series with 13 wickets at an average of 17.30 with two five-wicket hauls as the West Indies triumphed in a Test match down under after 27 years.

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Shamar Joseph was recently named in the LSG squad for IPL 2024 as replacement for Mark Wood

Shamar Joseph's express pace and incredible performance in Australia earned him a maiden IPL contract with the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for ₹3 crore.

The West Indian was named the replacement for English speedster Mark Wood, who pulled out of the lucrative tournament due to workload management by the ECB. Joseph has played only two T20 games in his career with no wickets to show far and an economy rate of nine runs per over.

He was part of the Guyana Warriors squad that won the 2023 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) title and played his only T20 games then.

Meanwhile, LSG have impressed in their first two IPL seasons, qualifying for the playoffs on both occasions. However, they were eliminated before the grand finale by the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Mumbai Indians in 2022 and 2023.