Babar Azam wins ICC Men’s Player of the Month Award for April


Babar Azam wins ICC Men’s Player of the Month Award for April

Babar Azam

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam was awarded the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Men’s Player of the Month award for April for his excellent showings in the series against South Africa. Babar beat out competition from fellow Pakistani batsman Fakhar Zaman as well as newcomer and Nepal’s Kushal Bhurtel who took his side’s series against the Netherlands by storm with some stupendous knocks.

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The ICC has been awarding the partially fan-voted Player of the Month award over the course of the last four months. For the month of April, there were very few nations involved in international cricket due to the now-suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) taking place at the same time. Pakistan were the only top nation involved in international cricket apart from South Africa (in the initial stages of the month).

Ramiz Raja explains Babar Azam’s selection

Babar Azam
Babar Azam

ICC took to Twitter today to announce Babar Azam’s selection as the Player of the Month. They wrote, “Three ODIS, 228 runs at 76.00. Seven T20Is, 305 runs at 43.57. Became the No. 1 ODI batsman. Well done, Babar Azam for winning the ICC Men’s Player of the Month for April.

Ramiz Raja who is a part of the ICC Voting Academy explained the selection of Babar and said in a statement, “The world bats in two ways in white-ball cricket. One way is to destroy attacks with muscle and force and then there is the Babar Azam way, like conducting a batting symphony with punch, panache and flair, and he deserves to win this award.”

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Meanwhile, the ICC Women’s Player of the Month was bagged by Australia’s Alyssa Healy who scored 155 runs in three ODIs against New Zealand. Ian Bishop spoke about her selection and said, “Healy deserves to win the ICC Women’s Player of the Month — April as she added the runs at the top consistently and at a good tempo to help set up Australia’s scoring in chases and target setting across all three games of their record-breaking series.”

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