Smriti Mandhana only Indian in race for ICC Cricketer of the Year award

Stylish opener Smriti Mandhana is the only Indian across women and men category to feature among the ICC nominees for the Cricketer of the Year honour.

Mandhana will be competing for the top honours alongside England's Nat Sciver, New Zealand's Amelia Kerr and Australia opener Beth Mooney.

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, England Test captain Ben Stokes, Zimbabwe all-rounder Sikandar Raza and New Zealand Test captain Tim Southee are the nominees for the Men's Cricketer of the Year award.

Stokes is also among the Test Cricket of the Year nominees alongside compatriot Jonny Bairstow, Australia opener Usman Khawaja and South Africa speedster Kagiso Rabada.

Voting for the awards is set to commence next week where global cricket fans will have the chance to submit their votes alongside a specialist ICC Voting Academy comprising prominent cricket media representatives to determine the 2022 winners, said the ICC in a statement.

Mandhana, who is the winner of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year 2021, is in the running once again to bag the coveted price in 2022.

Mandhana continued her rich vein of form in international cricket for the second year running, finishing as India's highest run-scorer across formats. She showed her incredible prowess in the white-ball formats and was the highest run-getter in T20Is (594 runs) and the second-highest in ODIs (696 runs) for India.

Mandhana made her presence felt at both the major tournaments this year – the Women's Cricket World Cup and the Commonwealth Games. In the latter, she was one of the driving forces in India going through to the final and bagging the silver medal in the first-ever Women's cricket event at the Commonwealth Games.

Stokes is a front-runner to become the Men's Cricketer of the Year. England were living a nightmare in Test cricket after humiliating series losses in the Ashes and the series against West Indies. Joe Root resigned as the Test skipper and the reins were handed over to 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.

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 in the World Cup final.