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March 12, 2026
India’s players swept all the women’s categories in ESPNcricinfo’s annual awards for individual performances in 2025, reflecting a year in which the team won their first World Cup title.
Jemimah Rodrigues won the women’s ODI batting honours for her awe-inspiring, cramp-battling century that knocked Australia out of the World Cup, while Deepti Sharma grabbed the ODI bowling award for her match-turning five-for in the final against South Africa.
Harmanpreet Kaur took the captain’s award for winning the World Cup, 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 also earned her the women’s T20 leagues batting award.
South Africa Women faced the heartbreak of losing yet another World Cup final, but the men, long falling agonisingly short of major prizes, won the World Test Championship by defeating Australia by five wickets in the final at Lord’s Cricket Ground.
Aiden Markram won the Test batting award for his epic fourth-innings hundred in that final, while Temba Bavuma, who scored a vital 66 while nursing a hamstring injury, was named men’s captain of the year for leading his side to the WTC mace, sweeping India in Tests in India, and winning ODI series in Australia and England.
Fast bowler Marco Jansen, one of the architects of South Africa’s 2-0 win in India, narrowly lost the Test bowling award to Mitchell Starc, who decimated England with 7 for 58 in Perth on the opening day of the Ashes.
The men’s T20 leagues bowling award went to Taskin Ahmed, who took 7 for 19 for Durbar Rajshahi against Dhaka Capital in the BPL. The batting prize in that category went to Mitchell Owen, whose 39-ball century against Sydney Thunder—equaling the tournament record for the fastest hundred—led Hobart Hurricanes to their maiden BBL title.
The women’s T20 leagues bowling award, like the batting prize, was claimed 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 highlight of men’s cricket in 2025. In Lahore, Ibrahim Zadran broke records for Afghanistan’s highest individual ODI score and for the highest score in the Champions Trophy with 177, knocking England out of the tournament. The ODI bowling award went to Varun Chakravarthy, who took 5 for 42 against New Zealand in Dubai, where India won the Champions Trophy a week later.
Six months later, at the same venue, India won the T20 Asia Cup. In the final against Pakistan, Kuldeep Yadav took 4 for 30, including three wickets in his final over, earning him the men’s T20I bowling award. 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 England’s fastest T20I hundred, their highest individual score in the format, and helped set their highest team total—304.
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 men’s debutant of the year. The women’s debutant award went to India fast bowler N Shree Charani, who impressed at 20 with a four-for on T20I debut in England and 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, a match in which opener Smriti Mandhana’s maiden T20I hundred set up India’s win. Mandhana won the women’s T20I batting award for that innings.
The men’s Associate batting award went to Max O’Dowd for masterminding the Netherlands’ 370-run chase—the third-highest successful chase in ODIs—against Scotland in Dundee, scoring 158 not out off 130 balls. The men’s Associate bowling award went to Harry Manenti, whose 5 for 31 against Scotland in The Hague helped Italy qualify for the 2026 T20 World Cup.
