New Delhi, Apr 3 :
Ravindra Jadeja has been voted as the best player of India’s home season in a poll conducted by ESPNCricinfo.
Jadeja, who averaged 22.83 with the ball and 42.76 with the bat over the 13 Tests India played at home between September last year and March, got 65 per cent of the 20,500-plus votes cast by ESPNcricinfo readers.
He got six votes out of 10 members who constituted an expert panel. Former India Test cricketers Sanjay Manjrekar, Ajit Agarkar and Aakash Chopra were among the panel members.
Readers and experts voted separately in the cricket website’s polls.
Pacer Umesh Yadav was voted as the best support act of the season while England’s Haseeb Hameed was picked as debutant of the season.
The second Test in the India-Australia series, in Bengaluru, was chosen as the Test of the season and Steven Smith as the visiting player of the season.
Smith’s selection was emphatic — all ten of the panel members voted for him, and 92 per cent of 17,900-plus readers who voted on the question agreed.
The two categories the readers and panel disagreed on were innings of the season and bowling performance of the season.
The readers selected Pujara’s marathon 202 against Australia in Ranchi as the best innings. The panel, though, went for Steven Smith’s 109 on a turning pitch in Pune as the best knock.
Another Australia player won the panel’s vote for best bowling of the season — Nathan Lyon, for his 8 for 50 in the first innings in Bengaluru.
Haowver, the majority of the 19,500-plus readers who took part in the polls for best bowling of the season, picked Jadeja’s 7 for 48 against England in Chennai Test as the best. PTI
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