The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced their nominees for the year-end awards, and left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, along with Renuka Singh and batter Yastika Bhatia, were nominated for the ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year for the men's and women's categories respectively.
Arshdeep will face competition in the men's category from a tough group of players which includes South Africa's Marco Jansen, New Zealand's Finn Allen and Afghanistan's Ibrahim Zadran. In the women's category, Renuka and Yastika will fight for the prize against Australia's Darcie Brown and England's Alice Capsey.
Voting for the award will begin in January, the ICC added in their official press release.
Arshdeep made the shortlist less than six months after making his international debut. In 21 T20Is, the pacer took 33 wickets at an average of 18.12. The 23-year-old was then handed his ODI debut as well during India's tour of New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Renuka Singh has been nominated for the prestigious award after the right-arm bowler scalped 40 wickets in just 29 matches across the two white-ball formats in 2022. The 26-year-old Renuka was especially dangerous in ODIs, taking 18 wickets at an average of 14.88.
She troubled the strong Australian line-up in seven T20I outings against the T20 World Cup champions in 2022, taking eight wickets, while her showing in the Commonwealth Games and the Asia Cup in Dhaka, where she took 17 wickets in 11 games, shows her big-match temperament.
Yastika, with her composed demeanour, performed remarkably in India's middle order throughout the year as well. She scored 41 and 31 in the lead-up to the 50-over World Cup in New Zealand before going on to score half-centuries against Australia and Bangladesh. The 22-year-old scored 376 ODI runs at an average of 25.06 and had a healthy strike rate of 73.29.
(With PTI Inputs)
