New Delhi, 06 October (H.S.): India’s Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma have been nominated alongside Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza for the ICC Men’s Player of the Month award for September. In the women’s category, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu, India’s Shree Charani and Shafali Verma have been shortlisted.

Abhishek Sharma scored 229 runs in four T20 Internationals in September, including a record-breaking century off 30 balls against Afghanistan. Shubman Gill, meanwhile, amassed 333 runs in two ODIs against the West Indies, including his second double century. Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza was the leading run-scorer in the home ODI series against Australia.

Indian captain Shubman Gill is in contention for the ICC Player of the Month award for the fifth time. He scored 110 in the first ODI against the West Indies in Thiruvananthapuram before producing a blistering 223 off just 133 balls to register the fastest ODI double century. His innings helped India chase a mammoth target of 406 with eight wickets in hand and 39 balls to spare.

Zimbabwe all-rounder Sikandar Raza scored 57, 45 and an unbeaten 81 in the home ODI series against Australia while also proving economical with the ball. Across three ODIs, he scored 183 runs at a strike rate of 92.89 and claimed three wickets at an economy rate of 5.46. During the same period, he also scored 90 runs and took two wickets in three T20 Internationals.

Abhishek Sharma, who won the award last September as well, broke the record for the fastest T20I century by an Indian. He surpassed Rohit Sharma’s record of a 35-ball century, set against Sri Lanka in 2017. In the third match of the series against Afghanistan at the Feroz Shah Kotla, the left-handed opener smashed 108 off just 34 balls. It was also the fastest century by a batter from an ICC Full Member nation.

Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu, a three-time winner of the award, scored 226 runs at a strike rate of 140.37 and took 14 wickets in seven T20 Internationals in September. Under her captaincy, Sri Lanka reached the finals of both the Women’s Asia Cup and the Asian Games. At the Asian Games, she was her team’s leading run-scorer and joint-leading wicket-taker. Her standout performance at the Women’s Asia Cup came against Indonesia, when she took seven wickets for five runs, including a hat-trick.

India’s Shree Charani, who was also nominated for the award in June, produced an outstanding performance in September, taking 18 wickets in seven T20 Internationals at an economy rate of 3.30. After taking two wickets for 13 runs in the Asian Games final, she set a record for the highest rating points achieved in the ICC Women’s T20I bowling rankings, reaching 817 rating points.

Aggressive opener Shafali Verma scored 360 runs at a strike rate of 184.61 and finished as India’s leading run-scorer during their successful Women’s Asia Cup campaign. She also took six wickets during the period. In India’s gold-medal campaign at the Asian Games, Shafali scored an unbeaten 100 in the semi-final against Bangladesh and 48 in the final against Sri Lanka.

The winners in both categories will be decided through a combination of votes from an independent ICC Voting Academy and fans around the world. Fans can vote for their preferred players through the official ICC website.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar