The 2025 Wisden Almanack has named its Five Cricketers of the Year, with an all England-qualified quintet selected for the first time since 2005.
Gus Atkinson and Jamie Smith, who made their Test debuts in 2024, are the two current England men’s internationals included, while Liam Dawson and Dan Worrall may soon join their ranks after stellar form in English domestic cricket. Sophie Ecclestone, England Women’s star player in an unbeaten home summer, rounds out the group.
Atkinson and Smith were key players in England’s home series wins against West Indies and Sri Lanka. Smith established himself as England’s first-choice Test wicketkeeper, hitting a maiden century in the first Test against Sri Lanka, while Atkinson achieved the rare feat of etching himself onto all three Lord’s honours boards, taking 7-45 and 5-61 on Test debut to upstage James Anderson’s final Test before hitting a hundred from No.8 back at HQ later in the summer.
Dawson, a long-term cause celebre for county fans, had a standout season for Hampshire in the Championship, averaging 60 with the bat and 25 with the ball, while Worrall, one of the country’s premier seamers, claimed 52 wickets at 16 as Surrey completed a hat-trick of Championship triumphs, an effort to which Smith and Atkinson also contributed. Worrall played three ODIs for Australia in 2016 but has now qualified to play for England, and has been tipped to win a call-up this summer. Dawson, the last of whose 20 international caps came in 2022, is also in the mix for a recall.
Ecclestone had a tough winter on and off the field as England were knocked out in the T20 World Cup group stage and succumbed to an unprecedented Ashes whitewash. She also came in for criticism for refusing a pitchside interview with former teammate Alex Hartley. But she was imperious in the summer, taking 13 wickets at 7.23 apiece in ODIs and the same number at 12.46 in T20Is as England swept aside Pakistan and New Zealand.
“Gus Atkinson made a dream Test debut, taking 12 wickets against West Indies at Lord’s,
and never looked back,” said Wisden Almanack editor Lawrence Booth, explaining his selections. “He picked up another Lord’s five-for, against Sri Lanka, and scored a century from No. 8. A hat-trick against New Zealand at Wellington helped him to 52 wickets at just 22 each in his first year as a Test cricketer.
“There was no more effective all-rounder in county cricket than Hampshire’s Liam Dawson, who claimed 54 Championship wickets with his left-arm spin at 25 each, and scored 956 runs at almost 60. Those hauls included three five-fors and five hundreds, and backed up the excellent season he had enjoyed in 2023.
“In a summer when Sophie Ecclestone became England’s leading wicket-taker in T20 internationals, her pinpoint-accurate slow left-armers contributed 26 wickets – at under 10 each – to their unbeaten summer. She was all but unhittable too, costing less than three an over.
“Jamie Smith ended England’s long-running wicketkeeping saga with a string of stirring performances in his first season as a Test cricketer. He began with 70 against West Indies at Lord’s, then added 95 at Edgbaston, and a superb century against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford.
“Dan Worrall was central to Surrey’s third successive Championship title, taking 52 wickets at an average of just 16 with his accurate, aggressive seamers. Time and again he made incisions with the new ball, and his match figures included ten for 57 against Worcestershire, eight for 73 against Durham and eight for 91 against Hampshire.”
Being named one of the Wisden Five is among cricket’s most coveted awards, with Cricketers of the Year first named in 1889, the number condensed to five in 1891, and a quintet named every year since, barring fallow years due to war and a few other exceptions. Only performances in the English summer are considered, and no cricketer can win the award twice.
With the men’s Test tourists winning just one game from six, and neither Pakistan nor New Zealand managing a victory against England Women, 2025 marks an unusual year with an entirely England-qualified group selected. The last time that happened was in 2005, in the Almanack released in the build-up to the 2005 Ashes. England had won all seven Tests the previous summer, with Ashley Giles, Steve Harmison, Rob Key, Andrew Strauss and Marcus Trescothick the five on that occasion.
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