Mitchell and Blundell named as Wisden’s best

Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell
Photo: Photosport NZ

Black Caps’ Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell have been named among Wisden’s five Cricketers of the Year.

Mitchell and Blundell along with England’s Ben Foakes and Matthew Potts and India women’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur are the five Cricketers of the Year.

Blundell scored 383 runs across New Zealand’s three Test matches in England last summer, including a century in Trent Bridge. He also scored 96 in the second innings of the previous Test at Lord’s and an unbeaten 88 in the final match in Leeds.

Blundell’s efforts in that series were only second to Mitchell’s, who scored 538 runs in the series at an average of 107. He became the 15th New Zealand men’s player to score a Test century at Lord’s, putting on a record 236-run partnership with Blundell, before going on to score 190 in Nottingham.

A third century came in Leeds, making Mitchell the fifth New Zealand player to score hundreds in three successive Tests.

Only Graham Gooch has scored more runs in a three-match Test series in England, and only he and Don Bradman have scored centuries in each of their first three Tests of a series in England as visiting batters.

The Cricketer of the Year award is the oldest individual award in cricket and dates back to 1889. Selection is based primarily, but not exclusively, on the influence the player had on the previous English season. No one can win the award more than once.

The five Cricketers of the Year are chosen by the Wisden editor.

Mitchell and Blundell at Lord’s
Photo:

England captain Ben Stokes was named leading cricketer in the world for the third time in four years, while Australia’s Beth Mooney received the women’s honour.

Stokes, 31, has transformed the fortunes of the Test team and played a starring role in the T20 World Cup final win against Pakistan in November.

England had won only one of their previous 17 Tests when all-rounder Stokes was appointed captain last April.

They have since won 10 of their past 12 matches by playing a daring style of swashbuckling cricket.

Stokes has previously been named the leading cricketer in the world in 2020 and 2021.

Later in the year he steered England to the T20 World Cup.

Mooney was named the leading women’s cricketer in the world for the second time in three years after being part of an Australia team that won World Cups in 50-over and 20-over formats as well as gold at the Commonwealth Games.

England batter Jonny Bairstow was awarded the new Wisden Trophy for the outstanding individual Test performance of the year – his twin hundreds in the record-breaking win over India at Edgbaston in July.

Meanwhile, India batter Suryakumar Yadav was named as the leading Twenty20 cricketer in the world.