The Indian Cricket Team’s pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah received the prestigious Polly Umrigar award along-with another gem the Dilip Sardesai award for his credible performance in the International Cricket in the 2018-19 season. He grabbed both of these awards in the BCCI Annual Function held on Sunday.
Talking about the awards, the Polly Umrigar award is presented to the best male International cricketer. This award carries a trophy along with a cheque of Rs 15 Lakhs. While the Dilip Sardesai award is awarded to both the highest wicket-taker and highest run-getter in Test Cricket.
Looking onto Bumrah’s performance in the International cricket it comes as no surprise that this young pacer is the recipient of these prestigious gems. Jasprit Bumrah who stayed away from the game for the latter half of 2019 after being ruled out of the series against South Africa owing to his back stress injury was still able to maintain his No.1 spot in the ICC’s ODI bowlers rankings. The 23-year old made his debut in the ODI cricket in 2016 and has climbed up the ladder of success ever since. He has played 58 ODI matches and has scrapped 103 wickets with one 5-wickets haul and an average of 21.88 per over bowled.
In Test Cricket format Bumrah is no exception, even after being only 2-year old in this format he has taken five 5-wicket hauls in the 12 matches played with an average of 19.24 per over. Jasprit Bumrah was also the only Indian bowler to be included in the Wisden’s T-20 International Team for the decade alongside the Indian skipper Virat Kohli.
On a side note, many other men and women Indian cricketers were also commended for their amazing performance in the BCCI Annual Function last night. Amongst these includes the Indian Women Team’s Poonam Yadav who claimed the best international cricketer award. It will be another achievement for the young leg-spinner who recently received the Arjuna Award.
The young Mayank Agarwal who impressed the cricket fans with his credible double hundred in the series against Bangladesh was awarded Best International Debut award, while the same award was grabbed by 15-year old Shafali Verma in the women’s category.
The BCCI Annual Function saw many such awards being showered upon the young, old and former cricketing gems. With both Men’s and Women’s T-20 World Cup around the corner, these awards will surely act as a boost for the players to perform their best for the team and as well as for themselves.