The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced four nominees for the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year 2022, on Friday.

1. Babar Azam – Pakistan:

(2598 runs in 44 matches)

2022 was yet another year of Pakistan skipper Babar Azam making and breaking records. He was the only player to breach the 2000-run mark in the calendar year across formats, with his 2598 runs coming at an average of 54.12, which included 17 fifties and eight centuries.

The 2021 ICC Men’s ODI Player of the Year continued to rule in the 50-over format, scoring 679 runs in nine matches. It is proof of his brilliant consistency that he registered scores of 50 or more in eight of those innings. He continues to hold on to his top spot in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s ODI Player Rankings and is once again in the running to win the ICC Men’s ODI Player of the Year 2022.

Babar also enjoyed a tremendous year in Test cricket, despite the team results not going his way. He accumulated 1184 runs in just nine matches and did the bulk of the heavy lifting for Pakistan in the longer format of the game.

It was also a memorable year for Babar as captain in the white-ball formats as Pakistan won all three ODI series they played, losing just one match out of nine. In the T20I format, he led Pakistan to their first T20 World Cup Final since 2009.

Babar’s most memorable knock came when Pakistan were staring at defeat against Australia in the second Test in Karachi.

Pakistan were bowled out for 148 in the first innings, giving Australia a mammoth 408-run lead. The visitors batted again and set them a target of 506 with close to six sessions remaining.

He came in to bat to begin his gritty 10-hour marathon knock of 196 off 425 balls in the second innings that almost took Pakistan from an inevitable defeat to almost pulling off an impossible win.

It was not only his first Test century in two years but also his highest Test score. He stitched two crucial partnerships, the first of 228 runs with Abdullah Shafique and then of 115 runs with Mohammad Rizwan.

After getting dismissed with just four runs short of a well-deserved double ton, Babar Azam walked off to a standing ovation, having registered the highest score by a Test captain in the fourth innings of a Test.

2. Ben Stokes – England:

(1066 runs and 33 wickets in 28 matches)

England’s back was against the wall in Test cricket after humiliating series losses in the Ashes and the series against West Indies. Former skipper Joe Root resigned as the Test skipper and the leadership roles were handed over to captain Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, the coach.

Since then, Stokes has taken England to new heights, winning nine of the 10 Tests as captain. Along the way, he has scored 870 runs, including two centuries and picked up 26 wickets.

The talismanic all-rounder did not have a brilliant white-ball year. In fact, he announced his retirement from ODI cricket to focus on the other formats of the game. In T20Is, he scored 143 runs in nine matches and picked up seven wickets. The numbers may not seem significant, but 52 of those runs came when England needed it the most.

2022 will be remembered for the captaincy and performances of Stokes in Test cricket but it is his innings of 52* in the final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup that proved to be invaluable.

Batting at No.4, Stokes came in rescue for England and showed great temperament at a time when the dugout was anxious after the early wickets. He was going at less than run-a-ball for the most part of the innings but took the game deep to keep England alive.

He turned the tide in England’s favour with a six and a four off Iftikhar Ahmed in the 16th over. He got to his fifty, which was his first in the 2022 T20 World Cup as well as his only half-century in limited-overs cricket this year, and scored the winning runs to bury the ghosts of Eden Garden from 2016.

3. Sikandar Raza – Zimbabwe:

(1380 runs and 33 wickets in 39 matches)

Sikandar Raza emerged as a crisis man for Zimbabwe in a year that saw the African country’s stocks rise in international cricket.

Raza was a force to reckon with in both white-ball formats, scoring more than 600 runs in both T20Is and ODIs. The star all-rounder enjoyed his most prolific year with both bat and ball since making his debut in 2013.

Raza scored 645 runs at an average of 49.61 in ODIs. All three of his centuries came in the ODI format when his side was in trouble while chasing and helped the team to get two wins over Bangladesh. Although his final hundred didn’t come in a winning cause for Zimbabwe, it gave India a huge scare.

In T20Is, Raza struck at an incredible strike rate of over 150 to accumulate his 745 runs. He was also the highest wicket-taker for Zimbabwe in the shortest format, scalping 25 while giving away just 6.13 an over.

He was the Player of the Tournament at T20 World Cup Qualifier B in July and carried his form into the marquee event, winning the Player of the Match thrice, including Zimbabwe’s epic win over Pakistan.

36-year-old Raza scored a mountain of runs for Zimbabwe in 2022 but it was his bowling spell that was memorable in the T20 World Cup match against Pakistan that made the most impact.

Raza showed his magic with the ball when Pakistan needed only 43 off 39 balls and were cruising to a victory while chasing 131.

Having been hit for a six on the previous ball, Raza bounced back with consecutive wickets of Shadab Khan and Haider Ali. In the next over, he dismissed the well-set Shan Masood down the leg side with a stumping, thus turning the course of the game in the five balls he bowled helping Zimbabwe to register a historic one-run win against Pakistan.

4. Tim Southee – New Zealand:

(65 wickets in 31 matches)

New Zealand’s ever-reliable Tim Southee was one of the stars with the ball in 2022. Southee was consistently amongst the wickets and finished with 65 scalps, the highest by a Kiwi in the calendar year.

In a year where New Zealand were far from their best as a team in Tests where they finished without a single series win, Southee was the highest wicket-taker for his country with 28 wickets in eight matches.

The 34-year-old was particularly lethal in the white-ball formats, picking up crucial wickets across all phases of the game. He played a crucial role in the New Zealand team that went through to the semi-final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, grabbing seven wickets in five matches with a miserly economy rate of 6.57.

Southee’s memorable performance came when he set the tone for the rest of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup with a fiery spell of 3/6 in the opening match of the tournament against neighbours and hosts Australia.

Southee struck off his very first ball of the tournament to dismiss David Warner and added another in the Powerplay with the wicket of Mitchell Marsh, all while giving away just six runs to help the Kiwis beat Australia by 89 runs on the opening day of the tournament.

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