Wisden’s Top Cricketer List Features Two Indians – Names Will Surprise You!

Jasprit Bumrah's performance in 2024 was something to talk about. He almost single-handedly carried the team on Australian soil in the prestigious Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Amid India's batting downfall and average bowling performance against Australia, Bumrah was the solitary man whose salvo forced Aussie batters to take extra precautions on the wicket. 

No matter which field, Bumrah's performance graph was scaling in only one direction— towards the sky. Throughout the years, the right-handed yorker specialist performed constantly well across all formats of international cricket. 

That helps him to achieve the recognition as the Leading Men's Cricketer in the World in the 2025 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. The editor of Wisden, Lawrence Booth, has described Bumrah in simple words: "Quite simply the star of the year." 2024 was the year when the speed star became the first Test bowler in history to claim 200 scalps at an average of less than 20 each.

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Bumrah also played his part as a positive catalyst behind Team India's ICC T20 World Cup 2024 triumph. Booth describes Jasprit's performance in BGT, where he bagged 32 wickets at 13.06, as, "He was so lethal, so uniquely challenging—a staccato of limbs somehow forming a symphony—that runs scored off him should have counted double … he laid a claim to be considered the greatest of all time."

Wisden recognised Smriti Mandhana's 2024 performance 

Along with Jasprit Bumrah, Smriti Mandhana is named as Wisden's Leading Women's Cricketer in the World for her undeniable contribution to team India's performance with 1659 runs across formats in 2024. That was the most runs scored by any woman cricketer on the planet in a single calendar year. She also played a brilliant 149-run knock in a test match against South Africa in June 2024.