The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced the shortlisted nominees for the ICC Player of the Month Award. In the inaugural awards, celebrated wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant has taken the spot in nominations along with England captain Joe Root and Ireland’s Paul Stirling. 

About the ICC Player of the Month Award Nominees 

Rishabh Pant 

Indian flamboyant glovesman Rishabh Pant has been having a tremendous beginning of the year. Pant played two Test matches against the Tim Paine-captained Australian team in the Border-Gavaskar trophy. In his second innings at Sydney, Pant went on to score 97 runs and fell just short of 3 runs from his century. His 97-run knock was all the more important for the Indian team as his efforts let India push Aussies to settle for a draw.  In the following match, Pant scored another 89 runs at Brisbane and helped the battered Indian team conquer the Gabba fortress.   

Joe Root 

Joe Root has also been in a tremendous form. The England skipper scored an applause-worthy 228 and 186 runs in his two matches against Sri Lanka. Thanks to Root’s efforts and the Sri Lankan team’s inconsistent performance, England clinched the 2-match series comfortably 2-0.  

Paul Stirling 

From the Ireland side, 30-year-old batsman Paul Stirling is also nominated for the Player of the Month award. Stirling is also known as Ireland’s best batsman and is in the list of top 10 run-scorers in 20-20 format. The experienced Irish batsman has always been praised by fans and cricket bodies alike and was also nominated as the “Emerging Player of the Year” by the ICC in 2010. Paul Stirling played 2 ODIs in January 2020 against the UAE and 3 ODIs against Afghanistan where he went on to score 3 centuries. 

About ICC Player of Month Awards  

The ICC earlier this month announced the ‘ICC Player of the Month’ awards to felicitate and recognize the best male and female performances on the cricket field across all forms of international cricket. The award will be given throughout the year which will incentivize both the experienced and up and coming cricketers alike.  

The Voting Process for Player of the Month  

Each month 3 cricketers are nominated for the Player of Month award. The process of the nominations remains fairly simple where cricketers are shortlisted based on their performances on the field and their overall achievements during that month. The shortlisted cricketers are then voted on by the ICC Voting Academy and fans. The ICC Voting Academy is comprised of important members from the cricketing world including ICC Hall of Fame members, former International cricketers, senior journalists and broadcasters.   

 ICC Voting Academy 

Afghanistan: Hameed Qayoomi and Javed Hamim  

Australia: Adam Collins and Lisa Sthalekar  

Bangladesh: Tarek Mahmoud and Mohammad Isam  

England: Kalika Mehta and Claire Taylor 

Ireland: Ian Callender and Isobel Joyce 

India: Mona Parthsarathi and VVS Laxman 

New Zealand: Mark Geenty and John Wright 

Pakistan: Sohail Imran and Ramiz Raja 

South Africa: Firdose Moonda and Jonty Rhodes 

Sri Lanka: Champika Fernando and Russel Arnold 

West Indies: Ian Bishop and Andy Roberts 

Zimbabwe: Tristan Holme and Mpumelelo Mbangwa 

Others: AKS Satish and Preston Mommsen 

Also read: ICC Test Rankings: Rishabh Pant becomes best wicket-keeper batsman in the world