The ICC announced the men’s and women’s nominees for the Player of the Month Award for March. Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Sean Williams were nominated in the men’s game while Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Lizelle Lee and Punam Raut were the women’s cricketers who were nominated for the month of March.
At the start of 2021, the International Cricket Council (ICC) introduced the Player of the Month Awards. It is to recognise and reward the cricketers who have produced outstanding international cricket performances in a particular month. The award is given to both men’s and women’s cricketers, but they are two separate categories.
Rishabh Pant was named as the male Player of the Month in January 2021 while Shabnim Ismail was the female Player of the Month. In February, Ravichandran Ashwin and Tammy Beaumont won the Player of the Month awards.
The ICC announced the nominees for the Player of the Month Award for March. The men’s and women’s are separate categories. Three cricketers have been nominated in each category. Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Sean Williams have been nominated in the men’s cricket while Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Lizelle Lee and Punam Raut are the nominees for the women’s game.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar had a stellar return to international cricket. The ace Indian fast bowler constantly dealt with injuries and had last featured for India back in December 2019. He picked up four wickets in the five-match T20I series before returning with six wickets in three ODI matches. His economy of 6.38 and 4.65 in the T20I and ODI series was by far the best for any bowler across the two sides.
Rashid Khan, who missed the first Test against Zimbabwe due to injury, bounced back with a bang. He picked up 11 wickets (4/138 & 7/137) in the second Test to bowl Afghanistan to victory. In the T20I series against the same opposition, he picked up six wickets and helped his side win the series 3-0.
Sean Williams was very consistent throughout March as well. He couldn’t get going in the T20I series against Afghanistan and scored just 45 runs in three innings, but he produced a couple of fine hundreds prior to that. He led from the front as he smashed 105 in the first Test against Afghanistan to help Zimbabwe record a famous win before the left-handed all-rounder scored a stunning 151 not out in the second innings of the second Test, which went in vain.
In the women’s game, Lizelle Lee was the standout performer. The South African opener smashed 288 runs in four innings in the ODI series, including two fifties and a hundred and helped South Africa register a 4-1 series win over India. In the T20Is, Lee scored 90 runs in three innings, including a match-winning 70 in the second game.
For India, it was Rajeshwari Gayakwad who was very consistent. The left-arm spinner ended up as the joint-highest wicket-taker in both the ODI and T20I series against South Africa. In the 50-over format, Gayakwad took eight wickets before picking up four wickets in the T20Is. Punam Raut was the star performer for India in the ODI series. The India No. 3 amassed 263 runs in five innings. She had scores of 62 not out, 77 and 104 not out in the last three ODIs.
These three nominees in each category are shortlisted based on their on-field performances in that particular month. The voting process is then open for fans around the world. There is a Voting Academy formed by the ICC, which consists of two former players from each country. This ICC Voting Academy will submit their votes via email, and their votes account for 90% of the result while the fans’ votes account for just 10%.
The winners will be announced every second Monday of the following month.
