Left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed on Wednesday was nominated for the ‘ICC men’s Player of the Month’ award for September owing to his contribution in the five-match T20 International series against New Zealand.
The men’s nominees also feature Nepal leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane and the USA’s power-hitter Jaskaran Malhotra.
Nasum became the third Bangladeshi player after Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan to be nominated for the award. Both Mushfiqur and Shakib eventually emerged as victorious. The left-arm spinner also looks highly likely to achieve the feat.
Nasum indeed was Bangladesh’s star performer in the home T20I series against New Zealand, leaving the visitors bamboozled with his accurate line and length.
He picked up eight wickets in the series with a sensational performance of 4-10 in the fourth match. His exploits helped the hosts to emerge victorious with a margin of 3-2 against the visitors.
Sandeep Lamichhane has already impressed one and all with his trickery in his short career so far. He continued this impressive run in the month of September, emerging as the standout bowler in the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2.
Playing six ODIs, Nasum picked up a staggering 18 wickets at an average of 7.38. His performance against Papua New Guinea, where he ended up with figures of 6/11, grabbed the attention of one and all.
His exploits helped him make significant gains in the MRF Tires ICC Men’s ODI Player Rankings.
The third and the final nominee, Jaskaran Malhotra of the USA, also had a month to remember. He became only the fourth player to hit six sixes in an over in an international fixture.
This feat came against PNG in a CWCL2 fixture in a scintillating knock of 173*. Overall, in six ODIs he scored 261 runs at an average of 87, at a strike-rate of 104.40.
The three nominees are shortlisted based on performances from the first to the last day of each calendar month. The shortlist is then voted on by the independent ICC Voting Academy and fans around the world.
The ICC Voting Academy comprises prominent members of the cricket fraternity including well-known journalists, former players, broadcasters and members of the ICC Hall of Fame.
The Voting Academy submitted their votes by email and secured a 90 per cent share of the vote. Fans registered with the ICC vote via the ICC website, accounting for the remaining 10 per cent. Winners are announced every second Monday of the month on the ICC’s digital channels.
