Babar Azam has been voted ICC Player of The Month for March becoming the only player to have won the honor twice.
Pakistan’s Captain beat out Australia’s Pat Cummins and West Indies’ Kraigg Brathwaite for his second nod after previously winning the award back in April of 2021.
Babar Azam was rampant throughout the month of March against the visiting juggernaut that is Australia.
His marathon innings of 196 in the second in Karachi etched his name in cricketing annals.
The no.1 ranked batter in two formats, finished as the third-highest run-scorer in the recently concluded Benaud-Qadir Trophy behind Usman Khawaja and Abdullah Shafique.
In his five outings, he scored 390 runs at an average of 78 courtesy of two half-centuries and a century.
Azam continued his brilliant form in the ODI series to lead his side to a 2-1 win over the visitors, Pakistan’s first in over 20 years.
He played vital knocks in each of the three games.
His 118 runs in the second ODI helped Pakistan chase an improbable target of 348 runs before adding 105 not out in the next game to seal the series for his side.
He now averages higher than India’s Virat Kohli in ODI’s for players who have scored more than 2000 runs.
“Babar Azam wins this award not only because of his significant glut of runs scored during the Pakistan v Australia tour, he was able to transition success with the bat across formats, from the Test Series into ODIs,” said former West Indies star and member of the voting panel Daren Ganga.
“Significantly, him being able to fulfill the burden of expectation as a captain and batsman for Pakistan being host to an Australian team visiting after 24 years is a monumental achievement.
Alongside Babar, Rachel Haynes was voted Women’s player of the month ahead of England’s Sophie Ecclestone and South Africa’s opening batter Laura Wolvaardt.
Haynes’ contribution as the opening batter helped Australia win the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 in New Zealand for a record seventh time early.
