Hail King Raza

Fungai Muderere 

SIKANDAR Raza’s star has continued to shine!

DAYS after being named in the ESPNcricinfo’s Test Team of the Year, Sikandar Raza’s profile has continued to rise after the Zimbabwe all-rounder was two days before New Year shortlisted for three major International Cricket Council (ICC) awards, including the coveted Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy which celebrates the overall best performing men’s cricketer.

He is also in the running for the ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Year and the ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year accolades.

The ICC unveiled the full list of players shortlisted for the ICC Awards 2022 last Friday highlighting the star performers from across the men’s and women’s game during a blockbuster year of cricket.

For the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy, Raza is nominated alongside Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, New Zealand paceman Tim Southee and England’s Ben Stokes, who is seeking to claim the prize for the second time after his maiden win in 2019.

In the ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Year category, the Zimbabwe star is pitted against Azam, Shai Hope (West Indies) and Adam Zampa (Australia).

Apart from Raza, the other nominees for the ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year accolade are Sam Curran (England), Mohammad Rizwan (Pakistan) and Suryakumar Yadav (India).

Shortlists for the ICC Awards 2022 categories were determined by a specialist panel of cricket writers and broadcasters, identifying the nominees based on statistics and overall achievements in international cricket through the calendar year.

Raza has been enjoying a terrific run of form this year.

He was named the ICC Men’s Player of the Month for August 2022, becoming the first Zimbabwean to win the prestigious accolade.

The talented all-rounder clinched the award after he scored three centuries against Bangladesh and India.

Raza was instrumental in claiming the ODI series victory for Zimbabwe against Bangladesh thanks to unbeaten scores of 135 and 117 which came during two superb run-chases.

He followed this up with a fine 115 against India in the final ODI in Harare, albeit in a losing cause.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *