Pakistan wicket keeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan and women’s cricket team’s Nida Dar have been nominated for the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) T20 international player of the year award.
The ICC issued on Thursday the list of nominees for both male and female cricketers’ categories for the award.
Muhamad Rizwan, ICC T20I player of the year in 2021, is in the run for the award for the second consecutive year.
The right-handed batter scored 996 runs and took nine catches and three stumpings in 25 T20I matches in 2022. He continued his brilliant run from his record-breaking year in T20Is in 2021 and played an anchor role for the Pakistan T20 team. Only Suryakumar Yadav scored more runs than Rizwan in the year in men’s T20Is.
Rizwan hit ten half-centuries in the year in T20Is and finished with 175 runs in the T20 World Cup, the joint-most by a Pakistan batter. Averaging 45.27 in T20Is in 2022, Rizwan enhanced his reputation as a high-quality anchor at the top of Pakistan’s batting line-up.
The year also saw Rizwan claim the top position in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings for batters for a brief while. He ends the year at No.2 with 836 rating points.
Rizwan’stop innings came against England in the home series in the build-up to the T20 World Cup, when he scored an unbeaten 88 off just 51 balls as Pakistan scaled a 200-plus target without losing a wicket.
Muhammad Rizwan was the ICC T20I player of the year in 2021.
Indian batter Suryakumar Yadav, Zimbabian all-rounder Sikander Raza and Player of the tournament in the T20 World Cup Sam Curran have also been nominated for the award.
Nida Dar’s stellar 2022
The Pakistani all-rounder scored 396 runs in 16 T20I matches at an average of 56.57 and got 15 wickets. She became the first and the only Pakistan bowler to have claimed 100 T20I wickets and is currently the second-highest wicket-taker in women’s T20Is.
Dar scored three fifty-plus scores this year: an unbeaten fifty at the Commonwealth Games, similar exploits against India at the Asia Cup, and a well-made 61 at home against Ireland in November.
Dar was exceptional in the Asia Cup, in which she amassed 145 runs in six matches, at a superb average of 72.50, and also claimed eight wickets at a meager 14.87 runs a piece.
Along with Nida, Indian batter Smriti Mandana, New Zealand’s Sophie Divine, and Aussie Tahlia McGrath have been nominated for the award.
