New Delhi: Pakistan captain Babar Azam, young England batter Harry Brook and Australia’s experienced left-handed batter Travis Head have been nominated for the ICC Men’s Player of the Month award for December 2022.
Having won the award on two previous occasions (April 2021 and March 2022), Azam is in line to win his third prize after another prolific month in the recent World Test Championship (WTC) series against England which carried into the subsequent series against New Zealand.
In the four Tests played in December 2022, he scored 523 runs at an average of 65.37, top scoring for his side in five out of eight innings. Among the highlights from his show stopping month were scores of 136 against England in Rawalpindi, and 161 scored in the first Test against New Zealand at Karachi.
England’s 3-0 series victory in Pakistan featured several fine individual performances, but Brook arguably provided the most important contributions during their landmark success. In what was only his second-ever Test match, the England youngster dazzled in Rawalpindi with scores of 153 and 87 to claim a historic victory and set the tone for the rest of the series.
Eventually, Brook finished the series having scored centuries in each of the three Tests, registering a total of 468 runs at an average of 93.60 to be Player of the Series and earn himself his first nomination for the ICC Men’s Player of the Month award.
Head, on the other hand, began with 99 in the first Test of Australian home summer against the West Indies was followed by an epic 175 in the second to seal the series win, but arguably his most important innings was reserved for the first Test against a blistering South African pace attack.
His 92 in the first innings at The Gabba, Brisbane, came as most of the others around him faltered, earning him the Player of the Match award in the four-wicket win. Head ended the month having scored 455 runs at an average of 91.00, picking up two wickets along the way.
–IANS