Joe Root, Eimear Richardson and 'Dazzle the dog' named ICC Players of the Month for August
Joe Root has been named the men's ICC Player of the Month for August on the back of his sensational performance in the Test series against India.The England captain was nominated for the award alongside India's Jasprit Bumrah and Pakistan's Shaheen Afridi.
In the three Tests of the series that were played in August, Joe Root scored 507 runs with three hundreds and was an absolute nemesis for Indian bowlers. The performances also made Root the No.1 ranked Test batsman
Former South African all-rounder JP Duminy, who is also on the ICC's voting panel, was impressed with the way Root led from the front. Here's what he had to say about Joe Root:
“With the expectation and responsibility on his shoulders as the captain, I was really impressed with how he led from the front with the bat, and become the number one ranked Test batter in the world.”
While Joe Root won the men's award, Ireland star Eimear Richardson won the ICC Player of the Month award for women. She was competing against compatriot Gaby Lewis and Thailand’s Nattaya Boochatham.
Richardson was the Player of the Tournament in last month's Women's ICC T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier. She picked up seven wickets, giving away runs at just 4.19 per over.
Richardson picked up a couple of wickets each against Germany and eventual table-toppers Scotland. She conceded no runs and picked up two wickets against France before returning figures of 1/22 against the Netherlands. Richardson was also handy with the bat. She scored 76 runs in the tournament, including a fine 53 against the Netherlands.
Here's what Richardson had to say after winning the award:
“It was very exciting to be nominated for the ICC Women’s Player of the Month for August and to now be voted as the winner is just so amazing and humbling. It was great to contribute to overall team performances at the European Qualifiers and hopefully we have done enough to make the next stage and compete on a global level again.”
Along with Joe Root and Eimear Richardson, ICC name special additional player of the month
Interestingly, the ICC named a special player of the month as well: Dazzle the dog for his fielding efforts during a Women's T20 game.
Here's the video of Dazzle's fielding efforts: