Jonny Bairstow is inaugural winner of new Wisden Trophy Test award

Jonny Bairstow has been named the inaugural – and also the 130th – winner of the Wisden Trophy, a new award for the outstanding individual performance by a man or a woman in a Test. The award is introduced in the latest edition of the venerable Almanack, to be published on Thursday.

With the previous iteration of the Wisden Trophy, which was awarded to the winner of the England v West Indies Test series between 1963 and 2020, having passed into obsolescence following its replacement last year by a new Richards‑Botham Trophy, some fresh silverware was commissioned in time for the Almanack’s 160th edition.

With twin centuries against India at Edgbaston last July, which helped England to complete their highest successful run chase, Bairstow was awarded the prize, but Wisden has also retrospectively chosen winners for the years between 1877 and 1939, with post‑war recipients to be announced next year. Don Bradman is so far the only three-time winner, WG Grace is named once, and all but three of the 54 players honoured represented England or Australia.

For the third time in four years Ben Stokes is named the leading men’s cricketer in the world, after captaining the England Test team through a wildly successful revolution and helping their white-ball side to secure the T20 World Cup. Australia’s Beth Mooney wins the women’s award for the second time, remarkably having started 2022 by breaking her jaw in two places.

The five cricketers of the year, an honour that can be won only once and reflects performances across the last English summer, are New Zealand’s Tom Blundell and Daryl Mitchell, Harmanpreet Kaur, captain of the India women’s side, and Matthew Potts and Ben Foakes – neither of whom can be sure of their places in