Nahida Akhtar has set a record for keeping bowling against Pakistan. He has made a great contribution to Bangladesh in winning the T20 series with great left-arm spin. After being the best in the series, this time he received the nomination of the ICC ‘Player of the Month’ award. She is joined by New Zealand’s Emilia Carr and West Indies’ Hayley Matthews in the battle for October’s best.
The names of the men’s and women’s cricketers who fought for the best of the last month were announced on Tuesday by the world cricket’s highest governing body-ICC. The boys’ shortlist includes India’s Jasprit Bumrah, South Africa’s Quinton de Kock and New Zealand’s Rachin Ravindra.
Nahida Akter
Nahida took 8 wickets in the 2-1 series win against Pakistan in Chittagong last month. In the first match, he took 5 wickets for just 8 runs and set the best bowling record for Bangladesh in T20.
3 more wickets in the next two matches earned him the Man of the Month nomination for the second time. The vice-captain of Bangladesh received this nomination for the first time in November 2021. Seber lost to Hayley Matthews. This is the first time this award is in front of him.
Hayley Matthews
Mathews batted brilliantly in the T20 series on the tour of Australia in October. After being unbeaten on 99 runs in the first match, he played a match-winning innings of 132 runs in the second. He also scored 79 runs in the last match.
He also took 3 wickets for 36 runs in the second match with the ball in hand. Later in the two matches of the ODI series, he scored 20 and 23 runs with the bat. The Caribbean captain is on the verge of winning the Man of the Month award for the second time in October.
Emilia Carr
Emilia Carr shined in ODI and T20 on the tour of South Africa. He won the Man of the Match award with an unbeaten century and 2 wickets with the ball in the last match of the ODI series.
Later in the two matches of the T20 series, unbeaten innings of 70 and 61 runs came from his bat. He also won the series best award with 1 wicket. Thanks to this, the 23-year-old all-rounder is likely to win the Man of the Month award again after February last year.
Quinton de Kock
Quinton de Kock has announced to quit ODI cricket after the World Cup. That’s why South Africa’s keeper-batsman has embarked on the campaign to paint the end. Along the way, he scored 431 runs at 71.83 in October.
De Kock scored centuries against Sri Lanka and Australia in the first two matches of the tournament. Later, playing an innings of 174 runs in the Bangladesh match, he overturned many pages of records. Along with this, he got the Man of the Month Award nomination for the first time since June 2021, courtesy of 10 catches and 1 stumping.
Rachin Ravindra
Rachin Ravindra has been reborn in the current World Cup. New Zealand’s young all-rounder is making his mark by getting a chance to bat in the top-order. Last month he scored 406 runs in six matches at an average of 81.20.
Ravindra played a whirlwind innings of 123 runs against England in the opening match of the tournament. Later against Australia came his 116 with the bat. With this, he got the nomination of the best of the month for the first time with 3 wickets.
Jasprit Bumrah
Jasprit Bumrah has been one of the key architects of India’s unstoppable journey in global tournaments. The pacer has taken 14 wickets throughout the month after recovering from injury. Costs just 3.91 runs per over.
Bumrah started his journey against Australia with 2 wickets for 35 runs. He took 4 catches for 39 runs against Afghanistan. He won the man of the match award with 2 wickets for 19 runs against arch-rivals Pakistan in Ahmedabad.
The two best cricketers of the month are selected by a joint vote of the ICC Voting Academy and cricket fans. The Voting Academy consists of senior sports journalists, former cricketers and commentators. They vote by e-mail, while registered ICC supporters have to vote on the ICC website.
In Serra’s judgment, 90 percent of voting academy votes are taken into account, while the remaining 10 percent are the votes of supporters.
