Photo Credit: Professional Cricketers’ Association
England’s Joe Root wins Test Player of the Summer in consecutive years.
Joe Root has won the 2024 Rothesay Men’s Test Player of the Summer award by topping the PCA MVP Rankings for the second year in succession.
England’s number four enjoyed a record breaking summer and scored a phenomenal 666 runs, alongside taking nine catches and a wicket during the six Test matches as England enjoyed comprehensive series victories over the West Indies and Sri Lanka.
An enthralling summer of Test cricket saw England win 3-0 against the West Indies and 2-1 against Sri Lanka after defeat in the final Test at the Kia Oval.
The Rothesay Men’s Test Player of the Summer award is decided by the PCA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Rankings with the unique formula taking into account expected performance on every ball according to CricViz’s extensive database. The algorithm also considers the historic performances of the venue each fixture is being player at, therefore giving a more accurate reflection of the top performers in the game than traditional batting and bowling averages do.
With standout performances throughout the six Tests, Root won the Rothesay Men’s Test Player of the Summer award by securing 174 points on the MVP table.
The 33-year-old’s 666 runs came at an average of 74 and he scored the most batting MVP points in the summer with 148.
The Yorkshireman secured a Match MVP award in the second Test against Sri Lanka and became only the fourth player in history to score a hundred in both innings of a Test match at Lord’s, joining George Headley, Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan on the illustrious list.
In the first innings, Root produced to a fantastic 143 off 206 balls which included 18 boundaries. The records kept coming for Root as he scored the fastest Test hundred of his career in the second innings, bringing up three figures off just 111 deliveries and surpassed Sir Alastair Cook’s total of England Test centuries with his 34th hundred. England ending up victorious in the match thanks to a 190-run win.
Root also became the first English player to register 50 international hundreds with that innings of 103, his 34 Test centuries coming alongside 16 in ODI cricket.
The remarkable achievement was also worth a record Match MVP score this summer, as Root picked up a further 71 points.
The former England skipper also impressed in the second Test against the West Indies at Trent Bridge scoring 122 off 178 balls in a 191-run partnership with Harry Brook as England secured victory by 241 runs.
Following the conclusion of the final match, Root received his Rothesay Men’s Test Player of the Summer trophy – produced by Mappin & Webb – at The Kia Oval.
On winning the award Root said: “It’s been a good summer we played some good cricket, it’s what you pride yourself on as a senior player and it’s great to see the new ways we keep improving and showing the depth that we’ve got.
“I feel good, you’ve got to keep working on your game and keep enjoying playing and getting better, we’re playing exciting cricket and you turn up everyday wanting to get succeed. The last few years have been the most enjoyable of my career.”
Another standout player, making his first appearances in Test cricket this summer, was Surrey’s Gus Atkinson.
The 26-year-old picked up a remarkable 34 wickets at an average of 20.2 on his way to earning 168 points on the MVP table. Atkinson also produced the most amount of MVP bowling points in the summer with 124.
An unbelievable Test debut at Lord’s against the West Indies saw Atkinson take career best First-Class figures of 7-45 in the first innings and another five-fer in the second innings to finish with match figures of 12-106. Atkinson’s incredible debut was worth 49 MVP points as he picked up the Match MVP award in his first game.
The England bowler more than proved his all-round capabilities against Sri Lanka by scoring a fabulous 118 at Lord’s off just 115 balls with 14 fours and four sixes. He also picked up 5-62 in the second innings to help dismiss the opposition for 292 and win the series.
Atkinson became just the sixth player in Test history to feature on all three honours boards at Lord’s, joining teammate Chris Woakes.
Third on the Test Rankings with 146 points was Woakes after another impressive summer. The England all-rounder took 24 wickets and chipped in with 179 runs.
View the Men’s Test MVP table by clicking here and selecting the Test tab.
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The Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA), founded in 1967 by former England fast bowler Fred Rumsey as the Cricketers’ Association, represents past and present first-class cricketers in England and Wales. In the 1970s, the PCA established a standard employment contract and minimum wage for professional cricketers. It also helped create a pension scheme in 1995 and launched the magazine All Out Cricket and the ACE UK Educational Programme in 2002.
