Men’s Player: Two of the three candidates for the ICC Player of the Month award are stars from the Fantastic Ashes series between Australia and England. Which dominated the month of July.
Given that England was down 0-2 at the beginning of July. Their rise to winning two of the ensuing three games was supported by outstanding performances from opening batter Zak Crawley and bowling all-rounder Chris Woakes.
Men’s Player: The third candidate for Player of the Month honors is the young prodigy Bas de Leede. Who shone for the Netherlands in the World Cup 2023 qualifiers? The 23-year-old’s outstanding overall performance helped the Netherlands qualify for the championship competition later this year in India.
While the winner will be revealed in a few days. Let’s take a hard look at how each of the three nominees performed in July.
Men’s Player of the Month nominees for July Names
- Chris Woakes
He sacred all-arounder Following his inclusion in the third Test after being left out of the starting XI in the first two games. Chris Woakes completely changed the course of the Ashes series. In the third Test at Headingley, with the hosts down 0-2, the 34-year-old showed his all-around significance to the team.
Woakes took six crucial wickets during the game and led England to a nail-biting 251-run victory with an unbroken 32-run last innings. The cunning pacer subsequently recorded his first Ashes five-wicket haul in the opening phase of the tied fourth Test in Manchester. And he added seven more dismissals in the match’s decisive third innings at the Oval.
His contributions enabled England to overturn a 0-2 deficit and tie the series at 2-2. Preventing Australia from winning a Test series on English soil for the first time since 2001.
Woakes was named Player of the Series after finishing the month with 19 wickets at an average of 18.15 and scoring the match-winning run in the third Test.
2. Zak Crawley
Zak Crawley’s position in the team came under intense scrutiny after the first two Test matches because the opener kept blowing multiple opportunities.
However. The 25-year-old fashioned a miraculous comeback in the final three games by adhering to the Bazball strategy and muting all outside sounds. Prior to playing the Ashes knock in the penultimate match at Manchester. Crawley recorded two significant scores of 33 and 44 in a low-scoring third Test at Headingley.
The aggressive opener helped England gain the upper hand by stymieing Australia’s elite bowling lineup with his 189 off 182 balls. In the last Test. Crawley had another strong performance, scoring 22 and 73 to help England win by 49 runs and tie the series.
In total, Zak Crawley scored 412 runs in July, averaging 58.85 (including the 51 in the second Test).
3. Bas de Leede
Bas de Leede put on one of the best ODI performances in the pivotal match against Scotland after already helping the Netherlands advance to the Super Six stage of the 2023 World Cup Qualifiers.
The 23-year-old took 5/52 in his 10 overs before exploding for 123 off only 92 deliveries to lead the Dutch to a four-wicket triumph. The Netherlands qualified for the Main World Cup in India thanks to his heroics. Finishing in the top two and just ahead of Scotland.
In addition, Bas de Leede became just the sixth player (men or women) in ODI history to record both a century and a five-wicket haul in the same game. In a match against Oman that the Netherlands won by 74 runs, the all-rounder also scored 39 runs.
With 15 wickets, he finished third in the tournament’s wicket-taking standings. He also scored 285 runs at an average of 47.50 and a strike rate of over 100.
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