India’s premier fast bowler, Jasprit Bumrah has got an upgrade in his trophy cabinet as it will now feature the BCCI’s Polly Umrigar award as he has become the best male cricketer for India in 2018-19. On Sunday, he was felicitated alongside Poonam Yadav, who will go home with the title best women’s player of the past season.
Although Bumrah was India’s go-to bowler in ODIs and T20Is, he made his Test debut for India in January 2018 and has proven himself to be the bowlers who can take a wicket in any situation. He became the first Asian bowler to have five-wicket hauls in Australia, England, South Africa, and the West Indies and even added a hat-trick to his resume.
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Since his debut in the Cape Town Test in 2018, Bumrah has scalped as many as 62 wickets in 12 Tests. Only three players have a better bowling average than his 19.24 in this period (under the condition of at least 20 wickets taken). His consistency helped India to win their first-ever series in Australia in early 2019, and for all that the BCCI will present him with a trophy, a citation and a cash prize of ₹15 lakh.
On the othe rhand, Poonam is the world’s top ODI wicket-taker (39) for the last two years. Her slow, teasing legspin helps the team dominate through the middle overs in T20I cricket as well, where she’s performed even better – 51 wickets at a phenomenal average of 16.27. Recognition as India’s best female cricketer by the BCCI comes on the heels of the 28-year-old winning the Arjuna award last year.
Both the senior men’s and women’s teams are expected to be at the BCCI function. The BCCI president, Sourav Ganguly said, “It will be a special evening in Mumbai as we will also have the 7th MAK Pataudi lecture and I am delighted to inform you that it will be Virender Sehwag who will address the gathering.”
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Lifetime achievement awards were also be given to the World-Cup-winning former Indian opener, Kris Srikkanth, and Anjum Chopra, the first Indian woman to play 100 ODIs.
Talking about the same, the BCCI secretary, Jay Shah said, “We wanted to make Naman [the BCCI awards] bigger and better and have introduced four new categories – highest run-getter and wicket-takers in WODIs and best international debut men and women – from this year. A total of 25 awards will be presented.”
The winners of the BCCI awards 2018-19
- COL. C.K. NAYUDU LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD – Krishnamachari Srikkanth
- BCCI LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR WOMEN – Anjum Chopra
- BCCI SPECIAL AWARD – Dilip Doshi
- DILIP SARDESAI AWARD – HIGHEST RUN GETTER IN TEST CRICKET- 2018-19 – Cheteshwar Pujara
- DILIP SARDESAI AWARD – HIGHEST WICKETS IN TEST CRICKET- 2018-19 – Jasprit Bumrah
- HIGHEST RUN GETTER IN ONE DAY INTERNATIONALS -2018-19- WOMEN – Smriti Mandhana
- HIGHEST WICKETS IN ONE DAY INTERNATIONALS – 2018-19 – WOMEN – Jhulan Goswami
- POLLY UMRIGAR AWARD BEST INTERNATIONAL CRICKETER- MEN – Jasprit Bumrah
- BEST INTERNATIONAL CRICKETER – WOMEN – Poonam Yadav
- BEST INTERNATIONAL DEBUT – MEN – Mayank Agarwal
- LALA AMARNATH AWARD FOR THE BEST ALL-ROUNDER IN THE RANJI TROPHY, 2018-19 – Shivam Dube
- LALA AMARNATH AWARD FOR THE BEST ALL-ROUNDER IN DOMESTIC LIMITED-OVERS COMPETITIONS, 2018-19 – Nitish Rana
- MADHAVRAO SCINDIA AWARD – HIGHEST RUN GETTER IN THE RANJI TROPHY IN 2018-19 – Milind Kumar
- MADHAVRAO SCINDIA AWARD – HIGHEST WICKET-TAKER IN THE RANJI TROPHY IN 2018-19 – Ashutosh Aman
- M.A. CHIDAMBARAM TROPHY – HIGHEST RUN GETTER IN (U23) COL. C K NAYUDU TROPHY IN 2018-19 – Manan Hingrajia
- M.A. CHIDAMBARAM TROPHY – HIGHEST WICKET-TAKER IN (U23) COL. C K NAYUDU TROPHY IN 2018-19 – Sidak Singh
- M.A. CHIDAMBARAM TROPHY – HIGHEST RUN GETTER IN (U19) COOCH BEHAR TROPHY IN 2018-19 – Vathsal Govind
- M.A. CHIDAMBARAM TROPHY – HIGHEST WICKET-TAKER IN (U19) COOCH BEHAR TROPHY IN 2018-19 – Apurva Anand
- JAGMOHAN DALMIYA TROPHY – HIGHEST RUN GETTER IN (U16) VIJAY MERCHANT TROPHY IN 2018-19 – Aryan Hooda
- JAGMOHAN DALMIYA TROPHY – HIGHEST WICKET-TAKER IN (U16) VIJAY MERCHANT TROPHY IN 2018-19 – Abhishek Yadav
- JAGMOHAN DALMIYA TROPHY – BEST WOMAN CRICKETER (SR DOMESTIC) OF 2018-19 (SR WOMEN ONE DAY) – Deepti Sharma
- JAGMOHAN DALMIYA TROPHY – BEST WOMAN CRICKETER (JR DOMESTIC) OF 2018-19 – Shafali Verma
- BEST UMPIRE IN DOMESTIC CRICKET IN 2018-19 – Virender Sharma
- BEST PERFORMANCE IN BCCI DOMESTIC TOURNAMENTS OF 2018-19 – Vidarbha C A