Harmanpreet Kaur and Mohammad Rizwan have won the ICC Player of the Month awards for September 2022. Pakistani player Mohammad Rizwan won the ICC Men’s Player of the Month award and Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur bagged the ICC Women’s Player of the Month award.
This is Rizwan’s first-ever ICC Men’s Player of the Month after he had a spectacular performance throughout September leaving nominees Australian player Cameron Green and Indian player Axar Patel behind. He piled up 553 runs from ten T20I matches from Asia Cup and the home T20I series against a touring England side. He had an amazing batting average of 69.12 during the month. He smashed seven half-centuries that helped him to better his rankings.
Rizwan will be the player to look out for in T20 World Cup and had a significant presence in Asia Cup where he scored three half-centuries in the latter stages of the tournament. He also had an amazing presence at T20 series against England where he scored four half-centuries. His partnership if 88 runs with Babar Azam was the main highlight of the game.
“I would like to thank Almighty Allah and express my heartfelt delight to all that enabled me to achieve this award.” He said
On the other hand, Indian batter Harmanpreet Kaur is the first Indian women’s batter of ICC Women’s Player of the month, this was because of India’s series victory in England in 1999.
She scored 221 runs in three matches with a strike rate of 103.47 and was dismissed in in one game. In the first match, her unbeaten 74 helped India too win the game against England by 7 wickets.
In the second game, she mustered 143 runs in 111 deliveries smashing 18 fours. On winning the award Kaur commented: “It was great to be nominated for the award and to win it is an amazing feeling. To come out as a winner when being nominated alongside Smriti and Nigar is very humbling. I have always taken immense pride in representing my country and achieving the historic ODI series win in England will remain a landmark moment for me in my career.”
Harmanpreet Kaur’s ICC player of the month trophy will act as an inspiration to the young players and women who want to make a career in cricket.
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