Dubai: Indian cricketers have been shortlisted for the February ICC Cricketer of the Year award. In the men’s, Indian batsmen Shreyas Iyer and in the women’s, Mithali Raj and Deepti Sharma made it to the shortlist. Nepal all-rounder Deependra Singh Iri and UAE teenager Vritya Aravind are the other two shortlisted men besides Shreyas.
Along with Mithali and Deepti, New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr made it to the shortlist. Shreyas’ performance in the series against the Windies and Sri Lanka in February was a resounding success. Shreyas Iyer, who scored 80 in the last ODI against the Windies and 25 off 16 balls in the T20I, was the top scorer in the T20I series against Sri Lanka with 204 runs, including three fifties.
Mithali Raj, who is also the captain of the ODI team, was shortlisted for the ODI series against New Zealand. Mithali had scored 232 runs at an average of 77.33, including three fifties, in a series that disappointed all Indian batsmen. Deepti’s all – round performance in the series against New Zealand made it to the shortlist. Deepti took 10 wickets for India in the series and scored 116 runs.