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Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc has been named the leading men’s cricketer in the world by Wisden Almanack, while India’s Deepti Sharma was named the leading women’s cricketer on Monday.
The UK-based Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, which dates back to 1864, is an annual record of all major cricket worldwide and is regarded as the sport’s “Bible”.
The publication named four Indian players who starred in a thrilling 2-2 drawn Test series in England last year among its five cricketers of the year.
Men’s Test captain Shubman Gill, spin-bowling all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant and fast bowler Mohammed Siraj were all on the list.
The only English player in the group of five was former Test opener Haseeb Hameed, who led Nottinghamshire to the County Championship in 2025.
Players can only receive the award once in their careers, and it is based predominantly on performances during the previous English season.
Gill also received the Wisden Trophy for Test performance of the year after he scored 269 and 161 in the second Test at Edgbaston.
Deepti Sharma succeeds compatriot Smriti Mandhana as Wisden’s leading women’s cricketer of the year for her all-round performances in India’s 50-over World Cup triumph, with Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc receiving the men’s award.
Starc, 36, claimed 55 Test wickets at 17.32 in 11 Tests in the calendar year, including a career-best haul of 6 for 9 against West Indies.
He then backed that up with 18 wickets in the first two Tests of the 2025-26 Ashes, en route to a series-winning haul of 31 at 19.93.
Meanwhile, Sharma, 28, was India’s player of the tournament as they claimed their maiden 50-over women’s World Cup crown with a 52-run win over South Africa in the final in Navi Mumbai.
In the course of the campaign, she scored 215 runs at 30.71 alongside 22 wickets at 20.40, and excelled in the final with a run-a-ball 58 and a match-sealing haul of 5 for 39.
The prolific Abhishek Sharma was named Wisden’s leading T20 cricketer of the year.
Wisden editor Lawrence Booth, however, criticised the increasing Indian influence on English domestic cricket’s Hundred, with four of the eight franchises now linked to owners of Indian Premier League teams after a huge influx of private investment.
“The competition’s new ownership structure risks turning The Hundred into an IPL proxy event, more for the benefit of Indian businessmen than English cricket,” wrote Booth.
He also pulled no punches in labelling England’s woeful Ashes campaign as “feckless, reckless and legless”.
England, humiliated 4-1 by Australia, were criticised for insufficient planning, confused tactics and an over-relaxed approach to off-field behaviour, highlighted by reports of excessive drinking during a mid-tour break.
“In the game’s long history, it is hard to think of a privilege so carelessly squandered, a chance so blithely spurned,” wrote Booth.
“England were feckless, reckless and legless. These were the wing-and-a-prayer Ashes and England got what they deserved. What a waste. What a shame.”
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