Pakistani star batsmen Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman, on account of their stupendous performances in the limited over series against South Africa, have made it to the ICC’s ‘player of the month’ tag. International Cricket Council on Wednesday put forward the online poll for the month of April 2021, and terrifically the Pakistani duo is leading the nominations.
It was only a few weeks back, that Pakistani all format Captain Babar Azam toppled the Indian Batsman Virat Kohli’s five years reign, and became the number one ODI batsman in the world, as per the latest ICC rankings. The skipper had climbed to the top of the table after he scored 228 runs in the away ODI series between Pakistan and South Africa. Hence, Babar Azam now sits at number one rank with 865 points, whereas Kohli follows second with 857.
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Furthermore, the ODI success isn’t the only golden achievement that Babar Azam grabbed with his recent spectacular batting. Later, he also contributed an incredible 122 from 59 balls in Pakistan’s successful chase, in the third match of a T20I series against the same opposition. This total, conquered after back to back sixes and fours, marked Babar’s career best T20I innings.
Other than that, Babar Azam has also added another feather to his cap in recently concluded limited over series against Zimbabwe. He became the fastest batsman to reach 2,000 runs in T20Is, taking 52 innings to reach the landmark, four less than Indian skipper Virat Kohli who took 56 innings to do the same.
Hence, owing to Babar’s phenomenal craft with bat in recent series, International Cricket Council (ICC) has named the Pakistani skipper as the nomination for ICC’s player of the month title.
Moreover, Babar Azam isn’t the only Pakistani to have acquired a rank in the ICC’s nominations. The other Pakistani cricketer, who impressed the cricket universe with his out of the stadium shots and one after other centuries, is none other than the veteran Pakistani batsman Fakhar Zaman.
Fakhar Zaman also produced stellar performances during the month, scoring two centuries in the ODI series victory over South Africa, including a magnificent 193 in the second match in Johannesburg.
Alongside the Pakistani batsmen Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman, Nepalese batsman Khushal Bhurtel was also included as one of the nominees for the men’s category.
The ICC Player of the month nominations recognize the mighty performances from both male and female cricketers across all forms of international cricket. And, the result for the month of April, will be announced on 10th May 2021, on the basis of public voting.
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