The year 2023, witnessed a rise of young talented players from different countries, giving a glimpse of the future prospects who are in line to take over the baton from the legends of the game who are approaching the fag-end of their time at the international level. Who will be ICC Women’s Emerging Cricketer of the Year 2023?
Nominees for the Women’s Emerging Cricketer of the Year 2023
Phoebe Litchfield (Australia):
The 20-year-old young batting sensation from Australia has had a sensational year with the bat ending up as the 2nd highest run-scorer of the year 2023 with 485 runs to her name at a strike rate of 81.92 and an impressive average of 53.88 in 12 innings. Her tally of runs included four half-centuries and a century. Her best performance with the bat this year came in the recently concluded three-match ODI series against India when she scored her 2nd ODI century (119 off 125 balls) in the 3rd ODI.
She was awarded the Player of the Series as she returned with brilliant performances in the series 78, 63, and 119 in a three-match ODI series, accumulating 260 runs at a humongous average of 86.66. She also managed to break multiple records en route to her stellar performances in the series. She surpassed former skipper Meg Lanning (246 runs) for scoring the most runs (260 runs) for Australia in a three-match ODI series. She also surpassed Clarie Taylor (225 runs) for scoring the most runs for Australia against India in a three-match ODI series. She scored 88 runs in the T20I format and 87 runs in the red-ball format this year. She is one of the front runners to bag the ICC Women’s Emerging Cricketer of the Year Award for 2023.
Marufa Akter (Bangladesh):
The 19-year-old pace-bowling sensation from Bangladesh also had an impressive year as she picked up 10 wickets with the bat at a strike rate of 34.2 and an average of 25.80 in 9 innings in the ODI format. Her best performance with the ball came in a three-match ODI series against India in July 2023 when she picked up 7 wickets in a three-match series. Her best performance with the ball in the series came on 16th July 2023 when she returned with the match figures (4/29) in her spell. She also picked up 10 wickets at a strike rate of 24.2 and an average of 23.30 in 13 innings in the T20I format. Her best performance with the ball came in the ICC Women’s T20I World Cup in South Africa in February 2023.
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ICC has revealed the nominees for Women’s Emerging Cricketer of the Year 2023.
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Lauren Bell (England):
The 23-year-old pacer from England picked up 7 wickets at a strike rate of 22.2 and an average of 27.71 in three innings in the ODI format. Her best performance with the ball came on 16th July 2023 in the 2nd ODI against Australia when she returned with the match figures (3/85) in her spell in the Women’s Ashes earlier in June 2023. As far as the T20I format is concerned, she picked up 9 wickets at a strike rate of 21.3 and an average of 26 in 9 innings. Her best performance with the ball came on 9th December 2023 in the 2nd T20I when she returned with the match figures (2/18) in her spell. In the red-ball format, she picked up 6 wickets at a strike rate of 48 and an average of 31.83 in 4 innings. Her best performance with the ball came on 14th December 2023 when she returned with match figures (3/67) in her spell.
Darcey Carter (Scotland):
The 18-year-old all-rounder from Scotland had a brilliant year with the bat as well as with the ball. She scored 224 runs at an average of 22.40 with the bat in the T20I format this year. Apart from her exploits with the bat, She also picked up 13 wickets at a strike rate of 12.9 and an average of 12.07 in 12 innings. Her best performance with the ball came against the Netherlands on 11 September 2023 when she returned with the match figures (3/11) in her spell. She is also one of the contenders for the ICC Emerging Women’s Cricketer of the Year 2023.