The International Cricket Council on Monday announced the Player of the Month award winners for January 2022. The month that saw an eventful beginning to 2022 for women’s cricket had England’s Skipper Heather Knight being adjudged as the Player of the Month winning it over the exceptional performances by the Sri Lankan captain Chamari Athapaththu and the World Boss from West Indies, Deandra Dottin.
Coming to the rescue when her team was struggling in the one-off Women’s Ashes test, Knight smashed the 2nd highest score by a captain in women’s test with a brilliant unbeaten 168 in the 1st innings that included a 100 runs partnership for the 9th wicket with Sophie Ecclestone taking the score from 169/8 to 297, ending the innings with a trail of 40 runs. In the 2nd innings, the player of the match, missed out on a half-century by just 2 runs but almost led England to the 4 points of the test victory until the experience of Australian bowlers took the match to a thrilling last-ball finish.
Heather Knight is declared ‘ICC Player of the Month’ for January 2022.
She scored 168* in the 1st Innings of the #Ashes test. pic.twitter.com/8XYVTzs3HW
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) February 14, 2022
Announcing her as the winner, ICC on their official website shared the comments of Irfan Pathan who is a member of the voting panel. He said,
“168 is the highest Test score by any female English batter against Australia in Australia,”
“It is also the second-highest score in women’s Tests in Australia. Her innings is made even more remarkable given its importance in securing the draw for England in the only Test.” He further added
Among Men’s, South Africa’s batter Keegan Petersen was adjudged as the Player of the Month for January for his Player of the Series performance in the three-match test series against India. He got the award over his U-19 countrymate, the U-19 World Cup Player of the tournament Dewald Brevis and Bangladesh’s pacer Ebadot Hossain.
Congratulations Heather!
Author of the poetry book ‘The Scent of Rhythm’, I am a passionate writer and a Sports enthusiast who writes on Cricket and plays Badminton.