ICC Men’s Player of the Month: Bhuvneshwar Kumar nominated for his bravery against England

Veteran Indian seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar was among the cricketers nominated for the ICC ‘Player of the Month’ award for March, following his performance in limited-overs matches against England. The ICC on Thursday announced the nominees to recognize the best performances of both male and female cricketers in all forms of international cricket. Apart from Bhubaneswar, others in the men’s category included Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan and Zimbabwean Sean Williams.

The women nominees included Rajeshwari Gaekwad of India, Liezel Lee of South Africa and Punam Raut of India.

Last month, Bhubaneswar played three ODIs against England, where he took 6 wickets with an economy rate of 4.65. He also played five T20Is, where he took 4 wickets with a superb economy rate of 6.38.

He was the standout bowler on both sides in the white ball series between India and England.

Rashid took 11 wickets as his team won the second Test against Zimbabwe and then took six wickets in a 3–0 T20I win.

From Zimbabwe, Williams played two Tests against Afghanistan where he scored a total of 264 runs and took 2 wickets. He also played three T20 matches against him in which he scored 45 runs with a strike rate of 128.57.

In women’s cricket, Rajeshwari played five ODIs against South Africa and both have been their leading wicket-takers in a series of white balls.

He took 8 wickets in ODIs with an economy rate of 3.56 and in three T20Is against the same opponent, he took 4 wickets with an economy rate of 4.75.

Raut played five ODIs against South Africa where he scored 263 runs at a total of 87.66 with a strike rate of 71.66.

Raut has been India’s top run-scorer in the ODI series against South Africa, scoring a century and two half-centuries in these games.

Promoted

From the South African camp, Liezel played four ODIs against India where he topped the ICC batting rankings by scoring a century and two half-centuries.

The three candidates for each category are shortlisted on the basis of on-field performance and overall achievements during the period of that month (on the first day of each calendar month).