Indian cricketers dominate Wisden awards
Indian cricketers dominated the Wisden Almanack 2026 honours, securing seven of the nine awards, with Deepti Sharma and Abhishek Sharma leading the way after being named Women’s Cricketer of the Year and T20 Cricketer of the Year respectively.
Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja were named among Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year, following their exploits in last year’s Test series in England.
The only non-Indian winners were premier Australian pacer Mitchell Starc, who was named Men’s Cricketer in the World, and England batter Haseeb Hameed, who was also included among the Five Cricketers of the Year.
Deepti earned the honour after emerging as the top-wicket taker in last year’s ICC Women’s ODI World Cup with 22 wickets.
The all-rounder’s effort helped India land their maiden global title, beating South Africa in the final in Mumbai. She also made 215 runs from nine matches with three fifties.
Abhishek had a breakout 2025 season, scoring 859 runs from 21 matches at an awesome strike-rate of 193 with a hundred and five fifties.
India’s Test skipper Gill was in prolific form during the English summer, scoring 754 runs, which played a crucial role in India securing a 2-2 draw in the five-match series.
Notably, he amassed 430 runs in the Edgbaston Test alone.
Pacer Siraj was the top wicket-taker in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series, taking 23 scalps.
While Pant made 479 runs before an injury that he suffered in the fourth Test forced him to sit out of the fifth match. He braved a toe fracture to score a 54 in the second innings at Manchester.
