Pakistan skipper Babar Azam was named ICC Men’s Player of the Month for April 2021 on Monday. Meanwhile, Alyssa Healy managed to win the award in the women’s category after delivering breath-taking performances during the tour of New Zealand.
The elegant top-order Pakistani batter won the award for his consistent and outstanding performances across all formats in the recently concluded series against South Africa. Voting from fans and ICC’s jury helped Azam to win the player of the month ahead of his teammate Fakhar Zaman and Nepal’s Kushal Bhurtel.Â
The 26-year-old scored a match-winning half-century in the last match of the ICC Men’s Cricket Super League Series against South Africa in Centurion has helped him to gain 13 points to reach 865 points. Courtesy of this gain of points, Azam is now ahead of Kohli in the ICC Men’s ODI Player Rankings. In the third match of the T20I series against the Proteas Azam also scored 122 runs from 59 balls while chasing a stiff target. He is currently third in T20 rankings and sixth in test rankings.
The Pakistan National team will be on the tour of England in July where they will play three T-20s and three One-day Internationals just before the ICC Men’s T-20 World Cup. They are one of the contenders to win the tournament as the squad is playing really good cricket under Azam’s leadership.
Meanwhile, Healy scored 155 runs at an average of 51.66 and a strike rate of 98.72 in the three ODIs against New Zealand. Her efforts saw her finish as the leading run-scorer in Australia’s series victory over New Zealand that extended their record winning streak to 24 ODIs. Healy managed to beat her compatriot Megan Schutt and Leigh Kasperek from New Zealand for the ICC player of the month award. The opening batter has been in fine form for Australia in white ball cricket for more than 18 months.