WISDEN CRICKETERS” ALMANACK NAMED JOE ROOT OUTGOING ENGLAND TEST CAPTAIN LEADING CRICKETER IN THE WORLD
Joe Root, England’s outgoing Test captain, has been named as the Leading Cricketer in the World in the 2022 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, which was published on Thursday.
Root, who stood down last week after an England record 64 Tests in charge, follows in the footsteps of his team-mate Ben Stokes, who claimed the honour in 2020 and 2021. Root’s run of outstanding personal performances included a haul of 1,708 runs at 61.00 in 15 Tests in 2021, but he has been powerless to prevent a run of form in which England have now won just one of their last 17 Tests.
“Root rose above the struggles of England’s Test side to produce one of the all-time great performances in a calendar year,” Lawrence Booth, Wisden’s editor, said. “His 1,708 runs have been beaten only by Mohammad Yousuf in 2006 and Viv Richards in 1976, and included six hundreds. And he scored his runs in his fifth year as England captain, at which point many of his predecessors had already called it a day.”
England played India in eight Tests home and away in 2021, losing five and winning two with a solitary draw at Trent Bridge. And as a consequence, two of India’s stand-out players, Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma, have been named among Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year – an honour which can be won just once in a player’s career, and is determined chiefly by their impact on the English home season.
“Jasprit Bumrah was central to India’s two Test wins last summer, taking three for 33 on the final afternoon at Lord’s, then thrillingly bowling Ollie Pope and Jonny Bairstow in successive overs to hasten his team to victory at The Oval,” Booth says. “Had rain not washed out the last day of the First Test at Trent Bridge, his nine wickets there might have led to an Indian win, too. In all, he managed 18 wickets at 20 apiece in the four Tests, and scored some unexpected – and crucial – tailend runs.