2023 — A remarkable year for Raza

ZIMBABWE Cricket’s golden boy, Sikandar Raza can’t just stop collecting accolades as he is in-line for yet another one, this time being, probably the biggest of them all, the International Cricket Council (ICC) T20I Player of the Year.

The year 2023 proved to be one to remember for the Chevrons stalwart, collecting awards everywhere he goes. Last year, he left an indelible mark on the game and as a highlight of his impact, he has been recognised by the sport’s governing body.

The unstoppable Raza will compete against some of the best in the world for the top accolade and will need Zimbabweans to rally behind him and vote for one of their own who is in the quest to break records.

There are three other players in line for the T20I Player of the Year award and these are India’s power hitting danger-man Suryakumar Yadav (who was named 2022 T20I Player of the Year), New Zealand’s versatile all rounder, Mark Chapman and Uganda’s Alpesh Ramjani.

Raza will, once again, build a strong case against Yadav and the rest of the field, irrespective of Zimbabwe falling short of this year’s T20 World Cup qualification.

The all-rounder was consistent with bat in hand across the year in the T20I format, scoring at least 20 runs in nine of his 11 innings across the year. He began the year with two half-centuries in his first three T20 innings, making 82 runs not out off 35 balls and 52 runs off 36 deliveries against Namibia away from home. During the series, Raza also claimed 4/24 in four overs in the final match of the series, which Zimbabwe lost 3-2.

After the Namibia series, attention turned to the Africa Qualifier, where Raza shone in spite of Zimbabwe’s plight at the tournament. His lowest score came making 48 runs from 39 balls in an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Uganda, passing the half-century mark in his other three knocks, most notably a score of 82 off 48.

Raza also claimed multiple wickets in all but one of the Africa Qualifier matches, also having best figures of 3/28 in a match with Ireland in their bilateral series meeting at the end of the year.

The year 2023 was a storming one for Raza, scoring 515 runs at an average of 51,50 and a strike rate of 150,14 while with ball in hand, he picked up 17 wickets at an average of 14,88 and an economy rate of 6,57. His 515 runs in 2023 were the most by a Zimbabwean batter in T20Is in a year.

He had a number of achievements on the international arena in 2023 which include making his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut and going on to be the first Zimbabwean to win a Player of the Match accolade and score a half-century in the world’s richest franchise league. He was also named in the ESPN Cricinfo T20I Team of the Year and CricTracker T20I Cricketer of the Year.

Raza was also named Player of the Tournament in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers Africa Final. He also has the most Player of the Match awards (nine) surpassing Virat Kohli, most Player of the Match awards in succession (four), most half centuries by a Zimbabwean in T20Is (six), and the most half centuries in succession in T20I (four). He also became the first Zimbabwean to get a hat-trick in T20Is (vs. Namibia) and the fourth Zimbabwean to reach 50 T20I wickets.

Voting is open for everyone at: www.icc-cricket.com/awards/icc-awards-2023 and Zimbabwe’s T20 skipper will need as many votes as he can get to be named the best 20-over player in the world in 2023. – @brandon_malvin