ICC Awards: The complete list of nominations has been announced. You can check it out here. Meanwhile, Smriti Mandhana has been nominated for the ICC Cricketer of the Year award.
Stylish opener Smriti Mandhana is the only Indian across the women's and men's categories to feature among the ICC nominees for the Cricketer of the Year honour. Mandhana will compete for the top awards alongside England's Nat Sciver, New Zealand's Amelia Kerr and Australia's opener Beth Mooney. Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, England Test captain Ben Stokes, Zimbabwe all-rounder Sikandar Raza and New Zealand Test captain Tim Southee are the nominees for the Men's Cricketer of the Year award. Stokes is also among the Test Cricket of the Year nominees alongside compatriot Jonny Bairstow, Australia opener Usman Khawaja and South Africa speedster Kagiso Rabada.
Voting for the awards is set to commence next week, where global cricket fans will have the chance to submit their votes alongside a specialist ICC Voting Academy comprising prominent cricket media representatives to determine the 2022 winners, said the ICC in a statement. Mandhana, the winner of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year 2021, is again in the running to bag the coveted price in 2022.
Mandhana continued her rich form in international cricket for the second year, finishing as India's highest run-scorer across formats. She showed her incredible prowess in the white-ball formats and was the highest run-getter in T20Is (594 runs) and the second-highest in ODIs (696 runs) for India. Mandhana made her presence felt at the major tournaments this year, the Women's Cricket World Cup and the Commonwealth Games. In the latter, she was one of the driving forces in India, going through to the final and bagging the silver medal in the first-ever Women's cricket event at the CWG.
Stokes is a front-runner to become the Men's Cricketer of the Year. England was living a nightmare in Test cricket after humiliating series losses in the Ashes and the series against West Indies. Joe Root resigned as the Test skipper, and the reins were handed over to Stokes and Brendon McCullum, the coach.
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Since then, Stokes has taken England to new heights, winning nine of the 10 Tests as captain. Along the way, he has scored 870 runs, including two centuries and picked up 26 wickets. The talismanic all-rounder had a poor white-ball year. He announced his retirement from ODI cricket to focus on the other formats. In T20Is, he scored 143 runs in nine matches and picked up seven wickets. The numbers may seem insignificant, but 52 of those runs came when England needed it the most in the World Cup final.
ICC Awards 2022 shortlists
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Men's Cricketer of the Year: Babar Azam (PAK), Sikandar Raza (ZIM), Tim Southee (NZ) and Ben Stokes (ENG).
Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year: Amelia Kerr (NZ), Smriti Mandhana (IND), Beth Mooney (AUS) and Nat Sciver (ENG).
ICC Men's Test Cricketer of the Year: Jonny Bairstow (ENG), Usman Khawaja (AUS), Kagiso Rabada (SA), Ben Stokes (ENG)
ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year: Babar Azam (PAK), Shai Hope (WI), Sikandar Raza (ZIM) and Adam Zampa (AUS).
ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year: Alyssa Healy (AUS), Shabnim Ismail (SA), Amelia Kerr (NZ) and Nat Sciver (ENG).
ICC Men's T20I Cricketer of the Year: Sam Curran (ENG), Sikandar Raza (ZIM), Mohammad Rizwan (PAK) and Suryakumar Yadav (IND).
ICC Women's T20I Cricketer of the Year: Nida Dar (PAK), Sophie Devine (NZ), Smriti Mandhana (IND), Tahlia McGrath (AUS)
ICC Emerging Men's Cricketer of the Year: Finn Allen (NZ), Marco Jansen (SA), Arshdeep Singh (IND) and Ibrahim Zadran (AFG).
ICC Emerging Women's Cricketer of the Year: Yastika Bhatia (IND), Darcie Brown (AUS), Alice Capsey (ENG) and Renuka Singh (IND).
(With inputs from PTI)