Contenders shape up for Australian Cricket Awards

With Sachin Tendulkar's endorsement still ringing in his ears, Marnus Labuschagne could be set to crown his remarkable year with a major prize at Monday's Australian Cricket Awards.

Labuschagne is set to vie for the prize of Test Cricketer of the Year at the annual awards night in Melbourne on Monday after his stunning introduction to Ashes cricket and dominant home summer.

Reigning Allan Border Medal-winner Pat Cummins will contend for a second successive year as Australia's top male cricketer across all formats, but is expected to face tough competition from David Warner and Steve Smith, who are both again eligible for the award.

Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy look the clear front-runners for the Belinda Clark Award after outstanding performances across what was a dominant 2019 for the Australian women’s team.

Singled out by India icon Tendulkar as the current player who most reminds him of himself, Labuschagne proved a revelation for Australia when he was thrust into the Ashes contest as Smith's concussion substitute at Lord's last August.

Labuschagne finished the summer eclipsing Smith as Australia's leading run-scorer in Test cricket through the voting period, with 1,340 runs in 18 innings at 74.44, with four centuries – including a maiden double ton against New Zealand at the SCG.

Labuschagne and the world's No.1 ranked Test bowler Cummins are set to vie for the Test Player of the Year gong with Smith and Nathan Lyon, last year's winner, at Monday's event at Melbourne's Crown Palladium, which will be broadcast on Fox Cricket, Kayo Sports and 7 Mate.

Votes are weighted to decide the overall Allan Border Medal winner – with those polled in Test matches worth twice those from ODI fixtures, and three-times the T20I votes – to reflect the primacy of the long-form game while also recognising performances across all formats.

Labuschagne played 11 of the 12 Tests in the voting period (8 January 2019 – 8 January 2020) that included last summer's two Tests against Sri Lanka, the five Ashes Tests, two at home against Pakistan and the three that followed against New Zealand.

Cummins and Lyon both played all 12 Tests, with the pace bowler claiming 63 wickets at 18.41 and sending down a phenomenal 445 overs.

Cummins, who won last year's Allan Border Medal, is expected to again feature prominently in the voting for that award given his participation in all three formats.

The 26-year-old was Australia's busiest player, with a combined 35 matches across formats, with a total of 103 wickets at 19.44. As well as all his 63 wickets in 12 Tests, Cummins claimed 31 in 16 ODIs and nine wickets in T20 internationals.

Warner could yet be a surprise winner despite his horror Ashes campaign given his performances in ODI and T20 cricket during the voting period.

Warner was Australia's most prolific run-scorer across all formats during the voting period, with his 1,815 runs in 26 matches made up of 647 in 10 World Cup ODIs, 287 runs in the six T20s to start the international summer, and the 881 he scored in Test matches.

Warner's year in Test cricket was a tale of two distinct halves. Dismissed seven times in 10 innings by Stuart Broad, he managed just 95 runs during the Ashes, finishing with a career-worst series average of 9.5.

Back on home soil he punished an inexperienced Pakistan pace attack as he posted a century at the Gabba, and an unbeaten 335 the Adelaide Oval. He backed that up with a third century for the summer, at the SCG against New Zealand.

Allrounder Perry, named the ICC's Cricketer of the Year for 2019, was a force to be reckoned with during Australia's successful Ashes campaign in England, named player of the series for performances that included collecting 7-22 in an ODI in Canterbury – the best one-day figures recorded by an Australian woman – and her second Test century in Taunton.

Across all formats in 2019, Perry hit 783 runs at 97.87 and collected 28 wickets at 16.5.

Healy, who took out last year's Belinda Clark Award, continued her purple patch with the bat across series against New Zealand, England, West Indies and Sri Lanka, striking two ODI tons and setting a new record for highest individual score in a women's T20I with her blistering 148no against Sri Lanka at North Sydney Oval.

Overall, her 1,112 two runs for 2019 – the most of any Australian woman – came at 55.6.

The contest for the women's ODI Player of the Year is also likely to be a two-horse race between Perry and Healy. The former scored 441 runs at 73.5 and picked up 21 wickets at 13.52 across 12 one-dayers and continued to break new ground, hitting her first one-day hundred against New Zealand in February and following up with a second against West Indies.

Opener Healy, who was Australia's leading ODI run scorer in 2019, scored 669 at 60.81 including two tons and five fifties.

Top contenders for 2020 awards

Allan Border Medal: Pat Cummins, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne

Belinda Clark Award: Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen

Test Player of the Year (Male): Marnus Labuschagne, Pat Cummins, Steve Smith

ODI Player of the Year (Male): Aaron Finch, David Warner, Pat Cummins

ODI Player of the Year (Female): Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy, Meg Lanning

T20 International Player of the Year (Male): Glenn Maxwell, David Warner, Aaron Finch

T20 International Player of the Year (Female): Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Meg Lanning

Domestic Player of the Year (Male): Daniel Hughes, Shaun Marsh, Jackson Bird

Domestic Player of the Year (Female): Beth Mooney, Sammy-Jo Johnson, Molly Strano

Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year (Male): Will Pucovski, Wes Agar, Caleb Jewell

Betty Wilson Young Cricketer of the Year (Female): Phoebe Litchfield, Tayla Vlaeminck, Josie Dooley