England’s Nat Sciver, India vice-captain and opener Smriti Mandhana, New Zealand all-rounder Amelia Kerr and Australia wicketkeeper batter Beth Mooney have been nominated for the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year award, the International Cricket Council announced on Friday.
The four players on the top of their game have been nominated for the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year 2022. In 2022, Nat Sciver was at her ruthless best across all formats, finishing the year with the most Test and ODI goals scored.
The majority of Sciver’s runs came in one-day international cricket, when she amassed 833 runs at an average of 59.50 and a strike rate of 91.43. She was the third-highest run scorer in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 with 436 runs in eight matches, and she was instrumental in helping England advance to the championship game.
With 242 runs scored in two matches, the English star demonstrated her abilities in the lengthier format. In June, she defeated South Africa and struck her first Test century with a brilliant 169*.
Smriti Mandhana finished as India’s top run-scorer across all forms as she carried on her strong run of form in international cricket for the second year in a row. She displayed her remarkable skill in the white-ball formats, scoring the most runs for India in T20Is (594 runs) and ODIs (696 runs), respectively.
The Women’s Cricket World Cup and the Commonwealth Games were this year’s two key competitions, and Mandhana was present at both. She was instrumental in helping India go to the final and win the silver medal in the inaugural women’s cricket competition at the Commonwealth Games.
Amelia Kerr, a 22-year-old all-rounder from New Zealand, made a name for herself in 2022 by consistently contributing with the ball and the bat in all formats.
Kerr couldn’t have asked for a better way to start the year; in the five-match ODI series against India, the right-hander produced four scores of 50 or more, including an exquisite century in the second game. She continued to perform well at the World Cup, where she finished third among New Zealand’s run scorers with 201 runs.
Mooney may have had the finest year of her career in 2022, despite failing to score a century during the previous 12 months, as she improved her performance on the strength of more consistency and newly acquired maturity.
Mooney did manage eight scores of at least 50 in 2022 (four in T20Is, three in ODIs, and one at the Test level), and six 50-over cricket no-balls during the year allowed the Australia star finish with an ODI average of more than 100 over the previous 12 months. (ANI)
