Pakistan’s all-format captain, Babar Azam is among the nominees for the prestigious ICC Cricketer of the Year award. Babar is included alongside England’s Test captain, Ben Stokes, New Zealand’s Test captain, Tim Southee, and Zimbabwean all-rounder, Sikandar Raza.
Babar had a stellar year across all three formats as he finished as the highest run-scorer in 2022. Babar was the only cricketer in the world to score more than 2,000 runs in international cricket as he scored 2,598 runs at an average of 54.12 in 52 innings in international cricket in the calendar year.
The stylish batter also scored 8 international centuries, the most in the calendar year. England’s Jonny Bairstow was the second on the list with 6 centuries to his name. Babar scored 4 centuries in Tests, 3 in ODIs, and 1 in T20Is in 2022.
Babar is nominated alongside Ben Stokes, who had an exceptional year as the captain of England’s Test side and played an instrumental role in England’s T20 World Cup win in Australia. Stokes scored a total of 1,066 runs and picked up 33 wickets in 28 international matches in the year. As captain, Stokes managed to change England’s fortunes and led them to a historic whitewash against Pakistan in their three-match series in the country.
New Zealand pacer, Tim Southee was one of the stars of the show for New Zealand. Southee picked up 65 wickets at an average of 28.67 in 39 innings in international cricket in 2022. Southee is also on the verge of leading New Zealand to a victory in the ongoing first Test match against Pakistan at Karachi.
Finally, Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza is the fourth nominee for the award. Raza is also included in the nominees for the ODI and T20I player of the year. Raza was outstanding with both bat and ball throughout the year. He scored 1,380 runs and picked up 33 wickets in 39 matches he played in the calendar year. He was instrumental for Zimbabwe as they qualified for the Super 12s of the 2022 T20 World Cup, where they managed to defeat Pakistan by 1 run.
Best captain ever