Mitchell Starc and Ashleigh Gardner wins the Australian Cricketer of the year awards

Australian pacer Mitchell Starc claimed his maiden Allen Border Medal and Ashleigh Gardner became the first indigenous person to claim the Belinda Clarke award. These two awards are the Top 2 and most prestigious honors at Cricket Australia awards. Cricket Australia announced them as the Australian Cricketer of the year during the lunch break of the ongoing women's Ashes test in Canberra on 29 January. The winners were chosen by votes from players, umpires, and media representatives throughout the entire year.

Mitchell Starc

Mitchell Starc became the fifth fast bowler in 22 years to sweep the Australian cricketer of the year title. He had a great performance throughout the year across all formats and also had a neck-to-neck competition with Michelle Marsh. Starc edged out Marsh by only one vote and picked up 107 votes. He featured in 5 test matches, 3 ODI matches, and was an integral part of Australia in the T20 World Cup. As a result, Starc scalped a total of 43 wickets across all the formats in this period of 12 months. It is definitely a moment of double celebration for Starc as he is also the winner of the men's ODI player of the year.

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Ashleigh Gardner

Ashleigh Gardner received 54 votes to clinch the Australian cricketer of the year title and the Belinda Clark award. During the span of the voting period, she was the third-highest run-scorer and the fifth-highest wicket-taker of Australia. She scored 281 runs at an average of three 5.10 including 4 half-centuries and scalped a total of 9 wickets. Gardner smashed a half-century in each o the three formats during the voting period. During this span, she hit her maiden Test half-century against India in October. Another of her highlighted performances is her match-winning knock of 73 in just 43 balls against New Zealand.

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