Gill, Smith, Sutherland among nominees for ICC Player of the Month awards for February
Dubai, March 7 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) Shubman Gill, Steve Smith and Annabel Sutherland are among the nominees for the ICC Men’s and Women’s Player of the Month awards for February.
Carrying outstanding form into the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025, three stars of the tournament form the nominees for the ICC Men’s Player of the Month.
Gill grabbed the headlines with a stellar showing in India’s decisive series victory over England pre-tournament and regained top spot in the ODI batter rankings ahead of their opening victory over Bangladesh. Three contests against England saw him make sizable contributions of 87 and 60 before a sublime 112 in Ahmedabad sealed a commanding series sweep.
The Blackcaps all-rounder Glenn Phillips geared up for the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025 in style, providing valuable runs in the middle order to seal the Tri-Nation Series in Pakistan earlier in February. Unbeaten scores of 28 and 20 followed a brilliant 106 from 74 balls which featured seven maximums in the Tri-Nation Series in Lahore.
Then, as the tournament commenced, Phillips enjoyed a bright start, hitting an equally brisk 61 in 39 balls and taking a remarkable catch to remove Pakistan skipper Mohammad Rizwan, ensuring the Blackcaps protected their target in a 60-run victory in Karachi.
While Steve Smith’s form was more subdued in the Champions Trophy, he once again took centre stage as stand-in skipper in Australia’s dominant 2-0 World Test Championship series sweep over Sri Lanka in Galle. The opening Test heralded a formidable 141 alongside Usman Khawaja, before he followed up with more of the same in the second Test, striking 131 in the first innings of a nine-wicket victory that sealed him the Player of the Series accolade and a spot back among the top five Test batters in the ICC Player Rankings.
ICC Women’s Player of the Month nominees for February:
Australia’s premier leg-spinner Alana King enjoyed a fine Women’s Ashes series, and played a starring role as they sealed the standalone Test in Melbourne to confirm a landmark series sweep. Key wickets of Sciver-Brunt, Dunkley and Wyatt-Hodge in the middle order came as King took four for 45 in the first innings, before she etched her name on the honours board with a career-best return in the longest format with five for 53 in the second innings.
A previous winner back in May 2023, the Thailand left-armer Thipatcha Putthawong was again the driving force behind their surge to success in February, topping the wicket-taking charts as her side sealed the Nepal Women’s Tri-Nation Series. In the space of six days at the start of the month, Putthawong took 14 wickets, which included four successive hauls of three wickets or more. Not only impressing with the ball, Putthawong hit a vital unbeaten 25 before taking four for 10 in Thailand’s thrilling five-run win over the hosts on 4 February.
Despite not winning the individual accolades she was nominated for the recently announced ICC Awards 2024 (ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year and ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year), Annabel Sutherland picked up where she left off at the back end of the year with a sparkling 163 in the Ashes Test victory over England, becoming the first woman to score a Test century at the ground in her emphatic Player of the Match performance.
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