Joe Root adjudged ICC Test Cricketer of the Year 2021

The governing body of world cricket, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has officially announced its Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year. While there were many potential candidates who showcased some exceptional performances in the year gone by, it is the England Test skipper Joe Root who has bagged the top honor.

Joe Root had a dream year in 2021 as he amassed 1708 runs from 15 games including six centuries. While many questioned his place in the modern-day ‘Fab 4’, Root silenced them all with his bat and kept scoring runs consistently. Not only did he make an impact on English wickets but also on Asian pitches especially the tough Indian conditions last year. The 2019 World Cup winner did score half-centuries Down Under in the recently-concluded Ashes series but could not succeed in breaching the three-figure mark even once.

Joe Root’s best performances in 2021

This arguably has to be Joe Root’s best performance on the 22 yards as he became only the third batter in the history of the game to score over 1700 runs in the traditional format in a calendar year with only Pakistan’s iconic batter Mohammad Yousuf (1788 in 2006) and Windies legend Viv Richards (1710 in 1976) ahead of him.

Root had displayed great batting performances in the year gone by and some of his epic knocks were during England’s tour of Sri Lanka in Galle and then replicated his performance in the following series on the turning track of Chepauk in Chennai and then went on to score a magnificent double century against the same opposition at the iconic Lord’s.

While the senior batter has impressed one and all with his outstanding batting performances in the year gone by, his Test captaincy has been under scrutiny and heavily criticized.

After a 2-0 clean sweep on Sri Lankan soil in January last year, and a one-sided dominance in the series-opener against India at Chepauk, it all went downhill for the Joe Root-led side in Test cricket as they suffered a 1-3 defeat in that series apart from failing to qualify for the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship final.

They then went on to lose the home series to the eventual WTC champions New Zealand 1-0 before trailing 1-2 to India in the five-match Test series with one game scheduled to play in July this year. A 0-4 drubbing in the recently-concluded Ashes series Down Under has added insult to injury.