The Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2025 edition, released on Tuesday, has acclaimed India’s all-formats fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah as the Leading Men’s Cricketer in the World.
Wisden’s editor Lawrence Booth calls Jasprit Bumrah “quite simply the star of the year” after he became the first Test bowler in history to take 200 wickets at an average of less than 20 per in 2024. He bowled India to victory in the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean in June and took 71 Test wickets at less than 15 apiece.
With 32 wickets at 13.06, Jasprit Bumrah nearly single-handedly led India’s attack during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia. Booth wrote: “He was so lethal, so uniquely challenging – a stacatto of limbs somehow forming a symphony – that runs scored off him should have counted double … he laid a claim to be considered the greatest of all time.”
Smriti Mandhana, Jasprit Bumrah countrywoman, completed an India double by winning the title of Wisden’s Leading Women’s Cricketer in the World.
Mandhana set a record in 2024 by scoring 1659 runs in all formats, including four ODI hundreds, making it the most by a female player in a calendar year of international cricket. In June, she defeated South Africa by ten wickets, capping her efforts with a second Test century of 149.
Wisden’s oldest accolades, the Five Cricketers of the Year, which are determined by a player’s performance during the English home season and are awarded just once in their career, had a strong Surrey theme, while Nicholas Pooran was voted the Leading T20 Player in the World.
This year’s quintet includes Gus Atkinson, Jamie Smith, and Dan Worrall, three players who helped Surrey win the County Championship for the third time in a row. Liam Dawson of Hampshire and Sophie Ecclestone, the England Women’s left-arm spinner, round out the group.
Worrall, who was born in Australia and will be eligible to play for England this summer, was a key contributor to Surrey’s victory with his accurate, aggressive seamers, taking 52 wickets at an average of only 16. However, Atkinson and Smith’s standout performances were during their first summer as Test cricket players.
Particularly at Lord’s, where he took 12 wickets in his first match against the West Indies, followed by a second five-for and an incredible first century from No. 8 against Sri Lanka later in the summer, Atkinson was England’s breakout star of the year. In his maiden year as a Test player, he took 52 wickets at a mere 22 apiece thanks to a hat-trick against New Zealand at Wellington.
Booth said that “there was no more effective all-rounder in county cricket” after Dawson’s left-arm spin helped Hampshire take 54 Championship wickets and amass 956 runs at over 60.
Ecclestone performed admirably during England’s undefeated home summer despite having a challenging winter at the T20 World Cup and the Women’s Ashes. She became her nation’s top wicket-taker in Twenty20 Internationals and took 26 wickets in all formats at a rate of less than 10 per over. She also demonstrated remarkable thrift by giving up fewer than three runs each over.
Mitchell Santner of New Zealand won the Wisden Trophy for the year’s best performance. In the second Test at Pune, he took the game-winning 13 wickets against India, giving New Zealand an insurmountable 2-0 lead in their Test series against the Indians. In addition to being India’s first home series loss since December 2012, the Kiwis’ 3-0 thumping of India made it one of the finest series victories ever.
Taking aim at the worldwide governance of cricket, Booth calls 2024 the year “cricket gave up any claim to being properly administered” in his annual Notes by the Editor.
He specifically draws attention to Jay Shah’s abrupt transition in December from honorary secretary of the BCCI to chair of the ICC, despite the fact that the two boards were still at odds over venue selection for the Champions Trophy, which Pakistan was supposed to host in February.
Booth calls the forthcoming final between South Africa and Australia at Lord’s a “shambles masquerading as a showpiece” and calls on the ICC to create a World Test Championship that is appropriate for its intended use.
Booth adds a warning while congratulating the ECB on the windfall from the recent Hundred equity sale, which is expected to give each of the 11 non-host counties £29 million.
“The ECB deserves a pat on the back if the Hundred is to be evaluated only on the basis of financial performance. However, despite the celebration, there was still a small amount of space for doubt. The difference with the host counties will eventually widen, regardless of how well the non-host counties have fared under the agreement. What would happen if the initial funding ran out, even though the ECB hopes to increase competition? Depending on your point of view, either paradise or dystopia is where we are headed.
In addition, this year’s Almanack honours two English cricket greats who passed away in 2024 and honours James Anderson, who retired from Test cricket in July after 21 years and an England record of 704 wickets.
Mike Brearley, Derek Underwood’s former England captain, pays tribute to him, and Amanda Thorpe, his widow, writes a heartfelt essay on her husband’s mental health issues. Thorpe passed away in August.
“It’s so hard for those of us who do not suffer from this to understand how and why it occurs,” writes Thorpe. “It is a lesson for all of us that it happened to Graham, who was basically a cheerful person. He made a concerted effort to overcome it by trying numerous therapy and drugs. He also felt a great deal of shame about who he was, but obviously, suffering like he did shouldn’t be stigmatised. After seeing it unfold, I realised that it is a serious physical illness. He seemed to be trapped in an illness from which he was unable to escape.
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