In a year that belonged to Jasprit Bumrah's sheer brilliance across formats, the Indian pace maestro was bestowed with the ICC Men's Cricketer of the Year for 2024 while taking home the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Award surpassing fellow nominees Travis Head, Joe Root, and Harry Brook.
Bumrah became a part of the exclusive list of Indian cricketers who have enjoyed this privilege. His predecessors are none other than Rahul Dravid (2004), Sachin Tendulkar (2010), Ravichandran Ashwin (2016), and Virat Kohli (2017, 2018).
Against a year where batters will perhaps seize the limelight at every given opportunity, Bumrah batted his way through the challenge, reminding the world of cricket about elite bowling.
Nothing but extraordinary performances were given by Bumrah in red-ball cricket. In fact, within 13 matches, the speedster became the first Indian pacer to claim 200 Test wickets, finishing the year with mind-boggling 71 dismissals, again with an average of below 20. His 2024 haul is the highest by any bowler for the year and second only to Kapil Dev's record for most wickets in a calendar year by an Indian pacer.
Bumrah's dominance was reflected in his ICC Test Bowling Rankings, as he crossed the 900-point threshold, ending with a record-breaking 907 points—the highest ever for an Indian bowler.
Bumrah's zenith came during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where he picked up an astounding 32 wickets across five Tests. His performances consisted of five-wicket hauls in Perth, Brisbane, and Melbourne, which disassembled the robust Australian batting lineup to gain him the Player of the Series award. His accuracy with no respite and ability to extract pace and movement on both flat and challenging tracks left the Australian batters in disarray. So far in the ongoing 2023-2025 WTC cycle, Bumrah has already scalped 77 wickets—the most by any pacer in a single cycle. This includes pivotal contributions in India’s matches against Bangladesh, New Zealand, and England besides Australia.
While his Test achievements were monumental, Bumrah’s white-ball performances were equally mesmerizing. Leading India’s charge in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, Bumrah was instrumental in securing the country’s long-awaited World title after 17 years.
He finished as the tournament's top wicket-taker, with 15 scalps at a staggering average of 8.26 and an economy of just 4.17. His show-stealing effort against Pakistan was 3-14, while 2-18 in the final match against South Africa really sealed the deal for his match-winning reputation.
Bumrah was also the quickest Indian pacer to reach 200 Test wickets milestone.
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