The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday nominated Pakistan men’s team captain Babar Azam, batsman Mohammad Rizwan and women’s all-rounder Nida Dar for the ICC Awards 2022.
Rizwan has been nominated for the ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year 2022 award, while Dar has been nominated for the same women’s award.
Azam has been shortlisted for the ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Year 2022 award.
Babur Azam
Babar Azam, who was the winner of the same award last year, is in the running for a repeat in 2022.
During the year, Azam demonstrated his skills in the 50-over format, justifying his ODI player rating from July 2021.
In his nine matches during 2022, the 28-year-old registered eight 50-plus scores, three of which he converted into centuries. He ended the year with 679 runs at an impressive average of 84.87.
2022 was also a memorable year for Babar as the captain of the ODI team, winning three out of three series.
Mohammad Rizwan
Just like his captain, Mohammad Rizwan is once again in the running for the T20I Player of the Year. The wicketkeeper-batsman was named the player of the year in 2021 as well.
The right-handed batsman scored 996 runs in 25 T20Is in 2022 with 9 catches and three stumpings. He continued his impressive run from his record-breaking year in T20I in 2021 and played the role of anchor for the Pakistan T20 team. In men’s T20Is, only Surya Kumar Yadav scored more runs than Rizwan in the year.
Rizwan scored 10 half-centuries in 2022 and finished with 175 runs in the T20 World Cup, the joint-highest by a Pakistani batsman.
In 2022, Rizwan also held the top spot in the ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings for Short-Time Batsmen. He ends the year at No. 2 with 836 rating points.
Nida Dar’s Magnificent 2022
All-rounder Nida Dar scored 396 runs at an average of 56.57 in 16 T20I matches and took 15 wickets in 2022 for which she won the ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year award.
She became the first and only Pakistani bowler to take 100 T20I wickets and is currently the second highest wicket-taker in women’s T20Is.
Along with Nida, Indian batsman Smriti Mandhana, New Zealand’s Sophie Devine and Australian Tahlia McGrath have been nominated for the award.
