England captain Joe Root, as expected, won the ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year Award for 2021 after beating the likes of Kyle Jamieson, Dimuth Karunaratne and Ravichandran Ashwin.
The magnitude of Joe Root’s sublime form in the year 2021 can be summed up by one simple stat he has become only the third player in history to aggregate over 1700 runs in Test cricket in a calendar year. Only Mohammad Yousuf and Sir Vivian Richards stood ahead of him. Root scored 1708 runs in 15 matches with six centuries in 2021.
Be it Asia or conditions back at home and against a range of bowling, Root has almost conquered everything with some sublime innings. His knocks in Galle against Sri Lanka, and against India in both Chennai and Lord’s are some of the finest witnessed in the modern era and will be spoken of highly for a long, long time. He hasn’t been shabby with the ball as well, chipping in with a handy 14 wickets, including a five-for in Ahmedabad.
Root’s 218 in the first Test of the four-match series against India in Chennai was a masterclass in batting. He swatted away a quality bowling attack, both pace and spin, with utter ease. This continued his form from the series in Sri Lanka, where he was again in sensational touch.
Batting for 377 deliveries, the Indian bowling had no answers to the Root conundrum, as he set up a 227-run victory for the visitors. This was also a sign of things to come for the remainder of the year, as the England skipper played knock after knock of the highest caliber, irrespective of the opposition.
