The single Indian contender for Cricketer of the Year by the ICC is stylish opener Smriti Mandhana, who is included in both the men’s and women’s categories. Along with Nat Sciver of England, Amelia Kerr of New Zealand, and Australia’s debutant Beth Mooney, Mandhana will be vying for the top prizes.
The nominees for the Men’s Cricketer of the Year award are Tim Southee of New Zealand, Ben Stokes of England in Test cricket, Sikandar Raza of Zimbabwe as an all-rounder, and Babar Azam, captain of Pakistan.
Along with fellow countryman Jonny Bairstow, Australia’s starting opener Usman Khawaja, and South Africa’s speedster Kagiso Rabada, Stokes is a nominee for Test Cricket Player of the Year.
The ICC announced in a statement that voting for the awards would begin next week, giving fans of cricket around the world the chance to cast their ballots alongside an expert ICC Voting Academy made up of notable cricket media members to decide the 2022 winners.
Mandhana, the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year for 2021 and the recipient of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, is vying for the honor once more in 2022.
For the second year in a row, Mandhana maintained her strong run of success in international cricket, finishing as India’s top run-scorer across all formats. She displayed her remarkable skill in the white-ball formats, scoring the most runs for India in T20Is (594 runs) and ODIs (696 runs), respectively.
The Women’s Cricket World Cup and the Commonwealth Games were this year’s two key competitions, and Mandhana was present at both. She was instrumental in helping India go to the final and win the silver medal in the inaugural women’s cricket competition at the Commonwealth Games.
The Men’s Cricketer of the Year award is likely to go to Stokes
After embarrassing series defeats in the Ashes and the series against the West Indies, England was experiencing a nightmare in Test cricket. Stokes and the coach, Brendon McCullum, assumed control of the Test team after Joe Root resigned as captain.
Stokes has since led England to unprecedented heights, leading his team to victories in nine of the last ten Test matches. He has amassed 26 wickets and 870 runs overall while playing, including two centuries.
The legendary all-rounder did not enjoy a stellar season with the white ball. He even made the decision to stop playing ODI cricket in order to concentrate on the other formats.
He played in nine T20I matches, scoring 143 runs while taking seven wickets. Those figures might not seem noteworthy, but 52 of those runs came in the World Cup final when England most needed them.
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