Babar, Rizwan, Nida Dar nominated for ICC awards

The International Cricket Council (ICC) Thursday nominated Pakistan’s men’s team skipper Babar Azam, batter Mohammad Rizwan, and women’s team’s all-rounder Nida Dar for ICC awards 2022.

Rizwan has been nominated for the ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year 2022 award, while Dar for the same women’s award.

Azam has been shortlisted for the ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Year 2022 Award. Babar Azam, who was last year’s winner of the same award, is in running to do a repeat in 2022.  During the year, Azam showed his prowess in the 50-over format, justifying his ODI player rankings —since July 2021.

In his nine matches during 2022, the 28-year-old registered eight scores of more than 50, three of which he converted into hundreds. He finished the year with 679 runs at a stunning average of 84.87. 2022 was also a memorable year for Babar as captain of the ODI team, winning three series out of three.

Just like his captain, Mohamad Rizwan is in the running for T20I player of the year once again. The wicketkeeper batter was named player of the year in 2021 as well.

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 10 half-centuries in 2022 and finished with 175 runs in the T20 World Cup, the joint-most by a Pakistan batter.

In 2022, Rizwan also claimed the top position in the ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings for batters for a brief while. He ends the year at No 2 with 836 rating points.

All-rounder Nida Dar scored 396 runs in 16 T20I matches at an average of 56.57 and got 15 wickets in 2022 for which she won the ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year accolade.  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. Along with Nida, Indian batter Smriti Mandhana, New Zealand’s Sophie Divine, and Aussie Tahlia McGrath have been nominated for the award.