In every sport, players are felicitated for good performances, be it a Man of the Match award or the Man of the Series/Tournament award. And for those who are consistent, there are the ICC Awards which is an annual function that takes place to award the best performances and individual achievements of the year gone by in cricket.
Now, we’re all set for the 2021 ICC Awards and while there are a number of categories where different players are teams are being nominated, the cricketer of the year award is always the most prestigious. Awards are given away for all different formats as well but we’re only going to talk about the 2021 ICC Cricketer of the Year, for the person who excelled right through 2021, regardless of the format.
ICC Cricketer of the Year 2021
Among the nominees for this annual ICC Award are Shaheen Shah Afridi (Pakistan), Mohammad Rizwan (Pakistan), Joe Root (England) and Kane Williamson (New Zealand). Once again, no Indian made the nominees for this list but over the years, Virat Kohli has dominated this category, winning in 2017 and 2018, and also winning the ICC Player of the Decade Award for 2020.
Now however, Pakistan is the favourite to grab this award because they’ve filled the slots for two of the four nominations. When it comes to Williamson, he hasn’t had a great year of 2021 and even struggled in the recent 2021 T20 World Cup while missing quite a lot because of injury as well. And Joe Root has had a fabulous 2021 but those runs he’s scored have mostly come only in the longest format.
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As for Rizwan and Shaheen Afridi, they’ve excelled right through the year and across formats as well. Rizwan in particular has been brilliant with the bat, doing even better than his teammate Babar Azam who is often considered as the greatest batsman of all time. He became the first ever to score 2,000+ runs in T20 in a calendar year while also recording the most T20 international runs in 2021.
Who will win the ICC Player of the Year 2021?
The Sir Garfield Sobers ICC Cricketer of the Year Trophy has gone to some of the best players across the world and whoever wins, it’ll be a real honour for them. As for Williamson and the Pakistani duo, it will be even more special as no one from these countries has won this award in the past. Vote for your winning pick below:
Who will win the ICC Player of the Year award?#GarfieldSobersTrophy #ICC #ICCAwards #ICCRankings #ICCAwards2021 #Cricket #Awards
— Read Scoops (@ReadScoops) January 7, 2022
Given their performances in domestic + international cricket as well as all formats of the game, we think that Rizwan is a front-runner to win this award this year. The ICC Awards 2021 will take place on 23 January 2022 and we’re sure to bring to you all updates from that ceremony here on this space.
So for knowing who wins at the 2021 ICC Awards and for similar cricket updates from around the world, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
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