Suryakumar Yadav, Renuka Singh among cricketers of the year
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Dubai: Indian T20I cricket sensation Suryakumar Yadav aka Sky, was named the ICC Men's T20 Cricketer of the Year on Wednesday after his phenomenal scoring in the shortest format of cricket. Meanwhile, Indian women's fast bowler Renuka Singh became ICC Emerging Women's Cricketer of the Year, PTI reported.
Sky overtook youngster Sam Curran, Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan and Zimbabwe's batting all-rounder Sikandar Raza to win the honour.
However, India's vice-captain and last year's Cricketer of the Year, Smriti Mandhana, lost out to Australia's Tahlia McGrath in the women's T20 category.
The 32-year-old Sky became only the second batter to score more than 1000 runs in a calendar year. He had scored 1,164 runs to become the most run scorer in the said year at a strike rate of 187.43. In the said year, he hit 68 sixes, scoring the most by a batter in the T20I format in a year.
Sky remained the key batter for Men-in-Blue throughout the year, scoring two hundred and nine fifties during the year, spreading 360 degrees around the ground with his exotic shots.
He was the best in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, with three fifties from six innings, averaging around 60.
Finally, he became the top-ranked player in the T20I format after garnering 890 points.
Indian woman batter, Renuka, beat Australia's Darcie Brown, England's Alice Capsey and compatriot Yastika Bhatia to touch the emerging player award. The 26-year-old right-armer claimed 40 wickets from 29 matches in white-ball matches, filling the vacancy left by Jhulan Goswami, PTI writes.