Bumrah and Root in running for best men's cricketer award. Wolvaardt is among 4 women's finalists

DUBAI (AP) — England batter Joe Root and India pacer Jasprit Bumrah are among the four players in contention for the International Cricket Council's men's player of the year award.

Prolific England batter Harry Brook and Australia's Travis Head are the other two men's nominees announced by the ICC on Monday.

Bumrah has been superb with his seam bowling this year and produced another near unplayable spell when he took 5-57 in the fourth test against Australia, which finished Monday with a dramatic victory for the Australians.

It was his 13th five-wicket haul in tests and the 31-year-old now has 203 test wickets at an average of 19.42. He took 71 wickets in 13 tests this year, averaging a remarkably low 14.92. He also captured 15 wickets as India won their second men’s T20 World Cup title.

Root has enjoyed a brilliant year with the bat, scoring 1,556 runs from 17 tests with an average of 55.57.

It was the fifth time he has scored 1,000 test runs in a calendar year and his six hundreds — including a career-best score of 262 — took him to 36 test tons and joint fifth place all-time with India's Rahul Dravid.

He also surpassed Alastair Cook to become England's leading run-scorer with 12,972.

Brook compiled 1,100 runs from 12 tests at a strike rate of 85.00, showcasing both his brutal hitting and ability to improvise under pressure with some exquisite timing.

He hit four hundreds, including a superb triple century with a blistering 317 off 322 deliveries against Pakistan on an admittedly pancake-flat track in Multan — where Root made his 262 during their marathon 453-run stand.

Head, meanwhile, has stood out with his aggressive counter-attacking batting in both tests and T20s.

South Africa batter Laura Wolvaardt and Sri Lanka’s all-formats captain Chamari Athapaththu are the women’s nominees along with allrounders Annabel Sutherland (Australia) and Melie Kerr (New Zealand).

Wolvaardt scored 697 runs across 12 ODIs, averaging 87.12 with a highest score of 184 not out. She complied 223 runs across three tests, averaging 37.16 with a best knock of 122.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

FILE - New Zealand's Amelia Kerr reacts as she leaves the field after losing her wicket during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 final match between New Zealand and South Africa at Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)

FILE - Australia's Annabel Sutherland celebrate the wicket of New Zealand's Isabella Gaze during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 match between Australia and New Zealand at Sharjah Stadium, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)

Australia's Travis Head plays a shot during play on the day four of the fourth cricket test between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

FILE - Sri Lanka's captain Chamari Athapaththu celebrates after she runout India's Smriti Mandhana during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 match between India and Sri Lanka at Dubai International Stadium, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)

FILE - South Africa's Laura Wolvaardt plays a shot during the women's cricket T20 preliminary round match between New Zealand and South Africa at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, Saturday, July 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi, File)

India's Jasprit Bumrah celebrates the wicket of Australia's Travis Head during play on the day four of the fourth cricket test between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.

The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.

The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.

The U.S.-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Islamic State group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria's national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.

The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”

The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.

Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.

The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.

On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.

Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.

“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”

Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.

Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.

“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.

Associated Press journalist Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

Sandbag barriers used as fighting positions by Kurdish fighters, left inside a destroyed mosque in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Burned vehicles at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

People flee the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

A Syrian military police convoy enters the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Burned vehicles and ammunitions left at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)