In recognition of their stellar performances Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur, Mitchell Starc, and Kuldeep Yadav were named winners in
ESPNcricinfo’s 2025 annual awards.
Indian women swept the categories, with Harmanpreet recognized for batting and leading the team to a World Cup title, while Starc and Kuldeep were honored for their bowling.
*Harmanpreet Kaur & Jemimah Rodrigues honoured for top performances in the 2025 season, which followed India’s World Cup victory.
*Mitchell Starc honoured for his performance (also named ICC Player of the Month for December 2025).
*Kuldeep Yadav was recognized for his impact as a spin bowler in 2025.
The awards highlight a dominant year for Indian cricket in the ESPNcricinfo accolades.
*Deepti” Sharma clinched the ODI bowling award for her match-turning
five-for in the final against South Africa, while Harmanpreet Kaur bagged the captain’s award for winning the world title and for sealing white-ball series (ODIs and T20Is) in England and winning her second WPL title with Mumbai Indians. Her title-clinching 66 in the WPL final against Delhi Capitals took the women’s T20 leagues batting award.
*Markram won the Test batting award for his epic fourth-innings hundred in that final, while Temba Bavuma, who made a vital 66 while nursing a hamstring injury during that chase, was picked as the men’s captain of the year for leading his side to the WTC mace, to a sweep of India in Tests in India, and for ODI series wins in Australia and England.
Fast bowler Marco Jansen, one of the bowling architects of South Africa’s 2-0 win in India, narrowly lost the Test bowling award to the incandescent Mitchell Starc, who decimated England with 7 for 58 in Perth on the opening day of the Ashes.
The winners
Men’s Test batting: Aiden Markram 136 vs Australia
Men’s Test bowling: Mitchell Starc 7 for 58 vs England
Men’s ODI batting: Ibrahim Zadran 177 vs England
Men’s ODI bowling: Varun Chakravarthy 5 for 42 vs New Zealand
Men’s T20I batting: Phil Salt 141 not out vs South Africa
Men’s T20I bowling: Kuldeep Yadav 4 for 30 vs Pakistan
Men’s T20 leagues batting: Mitchell Owen 108 vs Sydney Thunder
Men’s T20 leagues bowling: Taskin Ahmed 7 for 19 vs Dhaka Capital
Men’s captain: Temba Bavuma
Men’s debutant: Beau Webster
Women’s ODI batting: Jemimah Rodrigues 127 not out vs Australia
Women’s ODI bowling: Deepti Sharma 5 for 39 vs South Africa
Women’s T20I batting: Smriti Mandhana 112 vs England
Women’s T20I bowling: Shree Charani 4 for 12 vs England
Women’s T20 league batting: Harmanpreet Kaur 66 vs Delhi Capitals
Women’s T20 leagues bowling: Kranti Gaud 4 for 25 vs Delhi Capitals
Women’s captain: Harmanpreet Kaur
Women’s debutant: Shree Charani
Associate batting: Max O’Dowd 158 not out vs Scotland
Associate bowling: Harry Manenti 5 for 31 vs Scotland
Another seven-for took the men’s T20 leagues bowling award: Taskin Ahmed’s 7 for 19 for Durbar Rajshahi against Dhaka Capital in the BPL. The batting prize in that category went to Hobart Hurricanes opener Mitchell Owen, whose 39-ball century against Sydney Thunder – which equalled the tournament record for the fastest hundred – took his side to their maiden BBL title.
The women’s T20 leagues bowling award, like the one for batting, also came against Delhi Capitals in the WPL: 21-year-old UP Warriorz fast bowler Kranti Gaud, in her first season, took 4 for 25, including the wickets of Rodrigues, Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma.
The Champions Trophy was the headline event in men’s cricket in 2025 and the winning ODI performances came from that tournament: in Lahore, Ibrahim Zadran broke records for the highest individual score for Afghanistan in ODIs and for the highest score in the Champions Trophy overall with his majestic 177, which knocked England out of the tournament. The ODI bowling award was picked up by India legspinner Varun Chakravarthy, who took 5 for 42 against New Zealand in Dubai, where a week later India won the Champions Trophy.
Six months later, at the same ground, India also won the T20 Asia Cup. In the final against Pakistan, the dismantler-in-chief was our men’s T20I bowling award winner, another legspinner, Kuldeep Yadav, who took 4 for 30, including three wickets in his final over.
The men’s T20I batting award went to England’s Phil Salt, whose 141 not out off 60 balls against South Africa at Old Trafford was not only England’s fastest T20I hundred, but also their highest individual score in the format; and it took them to their highest team total – 304.
Ian Bishop, Sambit Bal, Shane Bond, Aakash Chopra, Andrew Fernando, Andy Flower, Nagraj Gollapudi, Mohammad Isam, Isobel Joyce, Raunak Kapoor, Nick Knight, Farveez Maharoof, Andrew McGlashan, Andrew Miller, Sidharth Monga, Tom Moody, Firdose Moonda, Urooj Mumtaz, Vernon Philander, Matt Roller, Osman Samiuddin, Dale Steyn
Australian allrounder Beau Webster, who scored four half-centuries, including a series-sealing one in his first Test, in Sydney against India, and took eight wickets in seven Tests, was named the men’s debutant of the year. The women’s debutant award went to India fast bowler N Shree Charani, who showed remarkable temperament at the age of 20 to pick up a four-for on T20I debut in England. She went on to take 14 wickets in the ODI World Cup, second-highest for India after Deepti.
Charani, like Harmanpreet, won two awards. Her other one, for women’s T20I bowling, came for her four wickets against England at Trent Bridge, in a match where opener Smriti Mandhana’s maiden T20I hundred played a vital role in setting up India’s win. Mandhana won the women’s T20I batting award for that performance.
The men’s Associate batting award went to Max O’Dowd for masterminding Netherlands’ 370-run chase – the third-highest successful one in all ODIs – against Scotland in Dundee. His 158 not out came off only 130 balls and trumped George Munsey’s 191 in the same match. The men’s Associate bowling award was picked up by seamer Harry Manenti, whose 5 for 31 against Scotland in the qualifier in The Hague, played a big role in Italy qualifying for the 2026 T20 World Cup.
ESPNcricinfo Awards 2025
News Edit KV Raman
