Raza up for ICC T20I Player of the Year

ZIMBABWE Cricket star all-rounder, Sikandar Raza has been nominated for the 2023 International Cricket Council (ICC) T20I Player of the Year award.

This is the second consecutive time that the 37-year old Chevrons stalwart is nominated for the top accolade having been shortlisted last year (for 2022 Player of the Year). The ICC unveiled the shortlist yesterday.

Raza is competing against India’s danger-man Suryakumar Yadav, New Zealand’s versatile all-rounder, Mark Chapman and Uganda’s Alpesh Ramjani.

In the year that was, Raza scored a massive 515 runs in T20Is at an impressive average of 51, 5. He had a high score of 82 runs and six half-centuries. He also ended the year with 17 wickets at an average of 14,9 and an economy of 6,57 with best match figures of 4/24.

Raza was named Player of the Tournament in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers Africa Final. He also had the most Player of the Match awards (nine), most Player of the Match awards in succession (four), most half-centuries by a Zimbabwean in T20Is (six), Most runs by a Zimbabwean in T20Is (515 runs), and the most half centuries in succession in T20I (four).

He became the first Zimbabwean to get a hat-trick in T20Is (vs. Namibia) and the fourth Zimbabwean to reach 50 T20I wickets. He was also named in the ESPN Cricinfo T20I team of the year.

Voting is open at:http://www.icc-cricket.com/awards/icc-awards-2023.

– @brandon_malvin