ESPNcricinfo Awards 2024 men's debutant of the year: Shamar blows the house down

Shamar Joseph

Tests: 29 wickets at 26.75 (15 innings)
ODIs: 1 wicket at 72 (1 innings)
T20Is: 10 wickets at 9.67 econ (9 innings)

Brian Lara shook his head in disbelief, wiping tears away. Carl Hooper too wept in a corner of the dressing room. Moments before, Ian Smith, in his inimitable breathless tones had called history, describing the events and emotions on a late Sunday afternoon at the Gabba. Pat Cummins' Australia had been stunned, silenced and defeated in the pink-ball Test by an unbroken spell of 11.5 overs of fast bowling from a 24-year-old Guyanese youngster.

On January 28 last year, Joseph scripted an all-time classic, helping West Indies to their first Test win against Australia in over two decades, and their first win in a Test in Australia since 1997. It allowed West Indies to finish the two-Test series 1-1, a result not many predicted beforehand.

In fact, West Indies had little hope when the fourth day's play started in Brisbane with Australia needing a further 156 runs with eight wickets in hand. They had closed out the first Test, in Adelaide, in about two days. Joseph had arrived at the Gabba that morning without his training gear, having limped off the ground the previous evening after Mitchell Starc pinged the big toe of his right foot with a darting yorker. Joseph got the go-ahead from the team doctor after a dose of painkillers, and running on adrenaline, he went on to unleash a spell that landed him on the honours board at the most unsparing venue for visiting teams in Australia. It was the first time the home side lost a day-night Test and the first time West Indies won one.

Joseph, who started playing first-class cricket only in 2023, bagged a wicket on his first ball in Test cricket and as five-for in his debut Test, in Adelaide, the first time he was bowling with a pink ball. It was the start of a wondrous journey for the young man from Baracara, a village deep in the interiors of the Guyana countryside.

Not especially tall, Joseph is all lean muscle tightly packed and runs with gusto to the crease, consistently delivering in the late 140kphs. He can hit the deck hard and seam the ball both ways, and as he showed in Australia, can consistently hit the top of off stump.

After the Australia series, Joseph's career took an upswing. Lucknow Super Giants signed him for the 2024 IPL for a handsome undisclosed sum. But the bigger reward for his Test success came when Daren Sammy, West Indies' selector and head coach, included Joseph in the side for the T20 World Cup.

He did not play a game in that tournament but he did feature on the away Test tour of England, followed by home series against South Africa and Bangladesh. While he played just one Test in the South Africa series, it came in Providence, his home venue in Guyana, and he took five in the first innings, though West Indies lost.

Despite the lure of T20 leagues, Joseph has said Test cricket is his priority - which played a role in him being one of only six players to be awarded two-year central contracts by Cricket West Indies last year.

Key moment

When Joseph began his 12th over on the afternoon of day four at the Gabba, Australia had one wicket in hand and 12 runs to win. Steven Smith was at the crease, alongside Josh Hazlewood. The target came down to nine after Smith took a single off the fourth delivery, looking to finish the match in the next over. Joseph sensed the opportunity, went around the wicket, speared in a 142.9 kph delivery that flattened Hazlewood's off stump, and dashed off in celebration. Upstairs, Lara rejoiced: "Twenty-seven years to beat Australia, Young, inexperienced, written off - this West Indies team can stand tall today."

The numbers

2 Number of West Indies bowlers who have taken a wicket with the first ball of their Test careers. Joseph was the second to do so, after Tyrell Johnson in 1939, and the 23rd overall

36 Joseph's batting score in his first Test innings - the highest by a West Indies No. 11 on debut.

What they said

"There's nothing like Test cricket and this man may be the saviour in the purest form of the game. Cinderella stories are rare in sport but this was truly epic from a young man who has single handedly reignited the passion of cricket followers in the Caribbean and all over the world."
- Steve Waugh heaped praise on Joseph on Instagram

"He bowled the house down."
- Australia captain Pat Cummins on Joseph's performance in the Brisbane Test

The closest contender

Nitish Kumar Reddy
Tests: 294 runs at 49, 3 wickets at 49.33 (7 innings)
T20Is: 90 runs at 180 SR, 3 wickets at 7.88 econ (3 innings)
Eyebrows were raised when Reddy was named in the Indian Test squad for the Australia tour. Just 21 first-class matches old, with an average of 21, the 21-year-old up-and-coming allrounder from Andhra was picked by the Indian selectors primarily so he got a sense of what big-time cricket was all about. By the end of an enthralling series, Reddy made the headlines several times while finishing as the fourth-highest run-maker (and second best among the Indians). He scored a magnificent century in front of a full house in Melbourne. The selectors and team management seem positive about Reddy growing into a white-ball allrounder on the back of his impact performances for 2024 IPL runners-up Sunrisers Hyderabad, who have retained him for the next three seasons.

ESPNcricinfo Awards 2024