Usman Khawaja named ICC Test Cricketer of the Year (2023)
Veteran Australian opener Usman Khawaja has been named the 2023 ICC Men's Test Cricketer of the year. He has become the sixth Australian to receive the honor. Khawaja enjoyed a dream run in whites last year as was the only batter to hammer over 1,000 Test runs. He was also a part of Australia's winning ICC World Test Championship team. Here are further details.
Sixth Australian to get this feat
Notably, Khawaja was nominated alongside his teammate, Travis Head, India's Ravichandran Ashwin, and England's Joe Root for the prestigious award this year. However, the Aussie opener beat all of them to get the honor. He became the sixth Aussie to receive the Test-cricketer-of-the-year award after Ricky Ponting (2006), Michael Clarke (2013), Mitchell Johnson (2014), Steve Smith (2015), and Pat Cummins (2019).
Usman Khawaja tops the chart
Khawaja finished with 1,210 runs across 13 Tests in 2023 at a brilliant average of 52.60. He hammered three tons and six fifties. Khawaja was the highest run-getter of two high-profile series. While he made 333 runs at 47.57 in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the 2023 Ashes saw him score 496 runs at 49.60. He smoked tons in Ahmedabad and Birmingham.
A look at his Test numbers
Currently playing his 71st Test match, Khawaja has gone to 5,278 runs, averaging 46.30. He made his Test debut against England in 2011. His tally includes 15 hundreds and 25 fifties in Test cricket. Since January 2022, he has scored the most runs in this format. He has compiled 2,391 runs in 27 Tests at an average of 56.92 (100s: 7, 50s: 11).
