Pakistan captain Babar Azam and Australian opener Rachael Haynes were on Monday voted as the ICC Players of the month for March.
Azam came ahead of his Australian counterpart Pat Cummins and West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite to win the honour. The Pakistan batsman became the first player to win the player of the month award twice.
Babar Azam svored 390 runs in the three-match Test series vs Australia. In the second match in Karachi, the skipper went on play a record-breaking innings of 196, salvaging a draw for his side. He continued his purple patch in the ODIs and helped the team win the series.
Speaking about Azam’s phenomenal performances in March, member of the voting panel and former West Indies international Daren Ganga said, “Babar wins this award not only because of the significant glut of runs scored during the Pakistan vs Australia tour, but also because his success with the bat across formats.”
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“Being able to fulfil the burden of expectation as a captain and batter for Pakistan as host to an Australian team visiting after 24 years is a monumental achievement.”
Rachel Haynes on the other hand beat Sophie Ecclestone od England and Laura Wolvaardt of South Africa to win the award.
Haynes bagged the honour riding on her brilliant show in the recently concluded ODI World Cup in New Zealand. Scoring 429 runs, the 35-year-old helped Australia seal their 7th title.
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“Rachael Haynes has displayed tremendous consistency for Australia. She set the tone for the tournament with a big hundred in their first game and her contributions throughout the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup set a platform for the other batters to build on. Haynes is a quality batter and a leader in women’s game,”former Pakistan skipper Sana Mir said.
