Pakistan's skipper Babar Azam dominance continues as he has bagged the coveted ICC's Men's Cricketer of the Year award for the second consecutive year. The match-winnings knocks, spell-binding stroke-play and memorable moments all came handy for Babar to claim the elusive award. In 2022, the 28-year-old star batter amassed 679 runs from nine matches at an average of 84.87 riding on three centuries.
Babar trumped Australia's Adam Zampa (30 wickets in 12 matches), Zimbabwe's Sikandar Raza (645 runs and eight wickets in 15 matches) and West Indies' Shai Hope (709 runs in 21 matches) to taste the glory.
"There were match-winning knocks, spell-binding stroke-play and memorable moments from a personal perspective and his team in 2022 as Pakistan skipper Babar Azam claimed the ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year Award for a second consecutive year," the ICC said in a statement.
Earlier, Babar was named captain of the ICC Men's ODI Team of the year. The list further includes players like Australia's Travis Head, West Indies' Shai Hope, India's Shreyas Iyer and New Zealand's Tom Latham. Iyer was India's top-scoring batter in the format last year, aggregating 724 runs at an average of 55.69 in 17 games.
Women's glory for Nat Sciver
Meanwhie, England's star all-rounder Nat Sciver won the ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year for her outstanding performances in 2022.
She amassed 833 runs and 11 wickets from 17 matches in 2022.
Sciver produced another memorable year in an already stellar career, racking up five half-centuries and two centuries in 2022 to be England's top performer in the year with the bat.
