2015 saw numerous stars rise up to the occassion in numerous sports - some Indian, some international. There were some, like Ravichandran Ashwin, who continued from where they left off. The same applied to shooter Jitu Rai and fastest man in the world Usain Bolt too. But there were new names too, like Abhijeet Gupta. PIONEER SPORT looks at the top achievers in 2015.
CRICKET
Indian
Rohit Sharma: The Mumbaikar has been sensational in limited overs this year with memorable innings of 138 against Australia in the tri-series early on, 137 against Bangladesh in the quarters of the World Cup and 150 against South Africa in Kanpur. However, in a complete turnaround, he finished the year on a low with only 74 runs in final two Tests before a personal high of getting married.
Ravichandran Ashwin: He may have been the 12th man in ICC’s Test team of the year, but for India he’s a top pick. In 24 matches this year in all formats, he’s taken 87 wickets at a staggering strike rate of 34 with seven 5-wicket hauls and twice he’s gone home with ten wickets under his belt. In the series against lanka and South Africa, he took 52 wickets (in 7 matches).
Mohammed Shami: He’s been sidelined since March but that doesn’t take away the fact that he played wonderfully in the World Cup. Picking up 17 wickets in 7 matches at an average of 17.29, Shami finished behind Umesh Yadav in the bowling charts (18 wickets) but had the bigger impact. Picked for the upcoming Australia Tour, he would look to recreate the magic in 2016 too.
Ajinkya Rahane: The new Mr. Dependable of Indian team, Ajinkya Rahane has scored 788 runs in only 10 matches at an average as high as 52.53. The numbers here, though, doesn’t show that these runs were scored while playing at different positions. When Rohit was out-of-form at number 3, Rahane had to fill his shoes and bat at the top of the order. When India was badly missing a finisher, he had to bat lower down the order at number six. But Rahane never disappointed.
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AB de Villiers: It is a rarity to find a batsman for all formats of the game but de Villiers is one such rarity. Even with the Boxing Day Test against England yet to take place, the explosive batsman’s numbers read for an eye-opener. De Villiers hit 1759 runs in all formats in 31 matches with a highest score of 162 runs against the West Indies in the World Cup. He showed he can slow down his tempo too with a slow innings while partnering Hashim Amla against India in the fourth Test in Delhi but the result didn’t come in the favour of the Proteas with the visitors losing 0-3 in the series.
Mitchell Starc: The Aussie finished top of the wicket-takers list at the World Cup with 22 wickets and a total of 88 wickets in all formats. His best of 6-for-28 came against a worthy adversary in New Zealand in the group stages of the big event. The tall seamer with ability to swing the ball and deter the batsman has been a problem for the opposition and that remained intact in 2015 too.
David Warner: After a miserable start to the World Cup, Warner in Australia’s fourth match against Afghanistan, he scored 178 runs off 133 balls, which became his highest score in ODIs, helped Australia to score the highest team total in any World Cup. But the real carnage started Tran-Tasman trophy where he bagged the man of the series award against South Africa where he scored 592 runs, including 3 centuries with an avg. of 98.66 and SR of 85.42. in with . In the recently concluded tournament against New Zealand, he scored an astonishing 253 at Perth and along with some other fabulous knocks.
Joe Root: The dashing England batsman scored 1288 runs in 24 innings of 13 matches. Root, currently one of the best batsmen in the world, has scored at an average of 61.33 and he scored three centuries and nine half centuries in the year. Although he performed well throughout the last 12 months, his performance in the Ashes was exceptional. Playing against Australia, the right hander scored 460 runs in nine innings at an average of 57.50. It includes a couple of centuries and two half centuries as well.