Star Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has been nominated as the Test Cricketer of the Year by the ICC. Besides Ashwin, ICC nominated Australian Travis Head, Usman Khawaja and former England captain Joe Root for the Test Cricketer of the Year. In 2023, all four players played excellently in Test cricket, which is why the ICC selected them to be nominated for this award. Now it will be interesting to see which player becomes the Test Cricketer of the Year for 2023.
The Indian spinner has been nominated for the Test Cricketer of the Year award for the third time. Previously, Ashwin was named Test Cricketer of the Year in 2016. He was also nominated for the ICC title in 2021. In 2023, Ashwin took 41 wickets in 7 matches. Ashwin was the highest wicket-taker in the Border Gavaskar Trophy in 2023, picking up 25 wickets in 4 matches at an average of 17.28.
In the final of the World Test Championship in June 2023, Australian batsman Travis Head played a brilliant innings of 163 runs against India and made an important contribution to the team's victory. Head was voted “Player of the Game” in the match. In 2023, the Australian batsman played 12 Tests, scoring 919 runs.
The year 2023 has been a great year for left-handed Australian batsman Usman Khawaja. Khawaja played a total of 13 Tests in 2023 in which he scored 1210 runs. At the start of 2022, Khawaja had also performed brilliantly in the Test. This time, Khawaja was nominated for the Test Cricketer of the Year award for the second time in a row.
The year 2023 was a very good year for former England Test captain Joe Root. The English batsman played 8 Tests in 2023 in which he scored 787 runs. During this period he scored two centuries and five half-centuries.