LONDON, England, (CMC) – Following a superb 2024, West Indies’ T20 star Nicholas Pooran has been voted Wisden’s Leading T20 Cricketer in the World.
The 29-year-old left-handed batsman earned the prestigious award after a record-breaking year that saw him set a new mark for the most T20 runs in a calendar year.
His 2331 runs scored at an average of 40 eclipsed Mohammad Rizwan’s T20 record for a calendar year of 2,036, which had been set in 2021.
Pooran, who overtook Chris Gayle to become West Indies’ leading T20 scorer, also hit the most sixes in a calendar year in T20 cricket.
He broke Gayle’s previous record of 135 sixes set in 2015, smashing 139 sixes.
Meanwhile, India’s fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah and opening batter Smriti Mandhana were crowned the world’s leading male and female cricketers respectively.
Bumrah won the honour in the men’s section after a stellar 2024 when he excelled across formats and was named player of the tournament as India won the Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies.
Mandhana won the women’s honour after a prolific 2024 that included five hundreds – four of them in one-day internationals.
She also led Royal Challengers Bengaluru to their first Women’s Premier League title last year.