The ICC Men’s Player of the Month award for April will be contested by two in-form batsmen and a spinner who broke a record, following a series of outstanding performances.
Fakhar Zaman was at the forefront of Pakistan’s chase, smashing an unbeaten 180 runs to help them win by 10 balls and 6 wickets against New Zealand in Rawalpindi. He hit 17 boundaries and six sixes, his second century in a row after scoring 117 runs off 114 balls in the first game at the same venue.
Fakhar won the Player of the Match award for his contribution to the victory. He began the month with a quickfire 47 runs in the first T20I against New Zealand and, despite not performing well in the next two T20Is, bounced back in the ODIs, his favored format.
In his 67-match ODI career, Fakhar has scored 3,082 runs at an average of 49.71 and a strike rate of almost 95.
In seven Tests, Sri Lanka’s Prabath Jayasuriya achieved 50 wickets, making him the spinner who reached this milestone in the fewest number of matches in the longest format.
He secured this record during the second match of the series against Ireland in Galle, where he took 17 wickets. On the final day of the game, he caught Paul Stirling, who had scored a century in the first innings.
Meanwhile, Mark Chapman of New Zealand played exceptionally well in the T20I series against Pakistan. He scored a total of 290 runs in the five-match series, including unbeaten knocks of 71 off 42 deliveries and 104 off 57 balls in the fourth and fifth T20Is, respectively.
Despite losing the first match of the series, Chapman was the top scorer for New Zealand with 34 off 27 balls. He followed it up with an unbeaten 65 off 40 balls in the second match, but unfortunately, the visitors lost by 38 runs.