Cricket: Root and Beaumont Pick Up ICC Awards

Joe Root has been named as the Test Match cricketer of the year by the International Cricket Council following his record-breaking exploits in 2021.

The England skipper racked up 1,708 runs – the third highest ever haul in a calendar year.

Root scored two double centuries and four more hundreds, including three in as many Tests against India.

Root is the second England player to win the award after Sir Alastair Cook did so in 2011. 

“I’m incredibly proud to receive this award,” said the 31-year-old Yorkshireman. “I’m very humbled to be in the same breath as a number of wonderful players around the world. It means a wonderful amount.”

Root’s achievements with the bat are in stark contrast to those of his England team, who lost the most recent Ashes series 4-0 Down Under to bring his captaincy position into question.

They were also trailing the most recent home series 2-1 against India when it was postponed due to Coronavirus in September, having also lost at home to New Zealand earlier in the summer.

Despite starting the year with success in Sri Lanka, they immediately followed that up with defeat in India.

Root’s haul of 1,708 runs in 2021 was followed by the next best from Rory Burns, the left-handed opener with only 530.

Only Pakistan batter Mohammad Yousuf and West Indies legend Viv Richards have scored more than Root in a calendar year, with 1,788 and 1,710 respectively.

Beaumont named as women’s T20 international cricketer of the year

England opener Tammy Beaumont has joined Root in the awards, being named by the ICC as the world’s best women’s T20 player for 2021.

Beaumont scored 303 runs in nine T20s during the year, the most of any England batter and third most of any women’s player. She won the award ahead of England team-mate Nat Sciver, Ireland’s Gaby Lewis and India’s Smriti Mandhana.

Beaumont is currently involved in the multi-format women’s Ashes series, which England trail 4-2 after losing the only one of the three T20s which were played because of rain.

The four-day Test Match, in which a win is worth four points, starts in Canberra on Wednesday evening UK (11pm).

Beaumont is 4/1 to be England’s top run-scorer in the first innings of that fixture with Betfair’s sportsbook.