Bhuvneshwar Kumar nominated for ICC monthly award after exploits against England
Dubai: Experienced India seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar was among the cricketers nominated for the ICC 'Player of the Month' award for March following his standout performances in the limited overs matches against England.
The ICC on Thursday announced the nominees to recognise the best performances from both male and female cricketers across all forms of international cricket.
Besides Bhuvneshwar, the others in the men's category included ace leg-spinner Rashid Khan of Afghanistan and Zimbabwe's Sean Williams.
The nominees among the women's comprised Rajeshwari Gayakwad of India, South Africa's Lizelle Lee and India's Punam Raut.
Last month, Bhuvneshwar played three ODIs against England where he took 6 wickets with an economy rate of 4.65. He also went on to play five T20Is against them where he took 4 wickets with a fantastic economy rate of 6.38.
He was the standout bowler on either side in the white ball series between India and England.
Rashid took 11 wickets as his team won the second Test against Zimbabwe and followed up with six wickets in a 3-0 T20I victory for his side.
From Zimbabwe, Williams played two Tests against Afghanistan where he scored a total of 264 runs and took 2 wickets. He also went on to play three T20Is against them wherein he scored 45 runs with a strike rate of 128.57.
In women's cricket, Rajeshwari played five ODIs against South Africa and has been their leading wicket-taker in both the white ball series.
She took 8 wickets with an economy rate of 3.56 in the ODIs and in the three T20Is against the same opponent she took 4 wickets with an economy rate of 4.75.
Raut played five ODIs against South Africa where she scored a total of 263 runs at 87.66 with a strike rate of 71.66. Raut has been India's top run-scorer in the ODI series against South Africa, scoring a century and two half-centuries in these games.
From the South African camp, Lizelle played four ODIs against India where she scored a century and two half-centuries to move to the top of the ICC batting rankings.
The three nominees for each of the categories are shortlisted based on the on-field performances and overall achievements during the period of that month (the first to the last day of each calendar month).
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
