Babar Azam, Pat Cummins nominated for ICC Player of the Month Award for March 2022
India Today
ICC Player of the Month for March: Pakistan captain Babar Azam is the frontrunner to win the honour after a dream run with the bat in the home series against Australia.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam, and his Australian counterpart Pat Cummins were nominated along with West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite for the ICC Player of the Month Award for March 2022.
Babar is likely to win the honor after a dream run during the recently-concluded series against Australia at home. Babar led the batting charts across all three formats. Babar topped the scoring chart in the Test series. In his five outings, he scored 390 runs at an average of 78, including two half-centuries and a century. The highlight of the series was his match-saving 196 in the second innings of the second Test in Karachi.
Babar continued his outstanding form in the ODI series, playing vital knocks in the first two games. In the first ODI, he notched up a score of 57 in Pakistan's 88-run loss before scoring a brilliant 118 to lead Pakistan to a six-wicket win in the second contest.
The Pakistan skipper had hit 66 from 46 balls in the only T20I on Tuesday but it was not enough as Australia chased down a 163-run target to end their historic tour with a victory.
Meanwhile, Cummins led his team from the front in the Test series and was instrumental in their victory, taking a total of 12 wickets to lead the wicket-takers list.
Cummins was named Player of the Match for his bowling figures of 5/56 and 3/23 in the final Test, as he helped Australia win the contest in Lahore, as well as the three-match series.
On the other hand, Brathwaite was rewarded for his efforts in West Indies' Test series victory over England. With 341 runs in six innings at an average of 85.25, Brathwaite was the series' leading run-scorer. He smashed two half-centuries in his six innings and a magnificent 160-run knock in the second Test in Barbados.