The year 2019 has been great for cricket fans across the globe. As happens in all World Cup years, there was a lot of anticipation, anxiety, hype, and buzz around different teams and players. The ICC Cricket World Cup held across venues in England and Wales didn’t disappoint. England put on a fantastic display to win the title for the first time.
In such a fantastic cricketing year, it is great to honor the crème de la crème of the cricketers who made this all possible. These are the people who sacrifice so much of their time and energy to make cricket fans across the world happy.
Here are some of the fantastic players who deserve the best cricketer of the year gong.
Ben Stokes (England)
Ben Stokes was instrumental in pushing England to the ICC World Cup Title. His superb 84 pushed the game to super over and the rest, as they say, is history. It is such displays that saw him with the 2019 BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) among other accolades.
The all-rounder was Man Of The Match as The Lions won the World Cup for the first time after trying so many times. At Headingley, during the third Ashes Test triumph against Australia, Stokes hit an unbeaten 135 making him one of the most outstanding cricketers in England and indeed in the world.
Virat Kohli (India)
The Indian batsman has won the ICC Cricketer of the Year award previously in 2017 and 2018. Another win would still be deserved for this magnificent player. He has continued scoring without any problems pushing the Men in Blue. His only regret is the loss against New Zealand at the World Cup.
In 6 Test matches, Kohli has scored 479 runs at an average of 68 leading India to 5 victories. In 22 ODIs, the batsman has scored 1288 runs at an average of 64.4 leading the men In Blue to 16 wins in 22 matches.
Kane Williamson (New Zealand)
The Kiwis kept fighting despite the odds and almost won the title, were it not for the controversial boundary rule. All this was possible due to the influence of Kane Williamson the skipper and lead batsman.
Kane has an incredible 298 runs in 4 Test cricket matches at an average of 74.5. Add to this 948 runs in 20 ODIs and you start realizing this is a batsman destined for greatness. He also won the Player of the Tournament award at the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup due to his inspiring leadership and impressive returns with the bat.
Rohit Sharma (India)
India continues performing impeccably across all cricket formats. The cricket-mad nation also continues producing come of the greatest cricket talents among them Rohit Sharma. 2019 has been a career-best year for Rohit despite the failure at the World Cup.
His impressive performance in his first time at the longest format of the game is proof enough of his talent. He has already won the CEAT ODI cricketer of the year category, which could point to greater things coming. He scored of 529 runs in just four innings which include 200s in a single game.
Rohit is the sixth Indian to score a 100 in both the innings of a Test. He has scored 1232 runs in 24 games in the 50-over format, including at the World Cup, where he was the top scorer.
Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh)
Bangladesh might not have won any major title this year but their all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deserves praise for his input.
At the ICC World Cup, Shakib scored 606 runs at an average of 86.57. Add to these 11 wickets and you have the first cricketer in World Cup history to score more than 500 runs and at the same edition take ten plus wickets.
Final Thoughts
The year 2019 has been great for cricket fans. If any of these cricketers win the title of the best cricketer of 2019, it will cap a mercurial year in cricket.
