Indian stars Jasprit Bumrah and Smriti Mandhana have registered a never-seen-before record in the history of the ICC Awards. The two Indian stalwarts have been rewarded for their scintillating performances throughout the previous month with the ICC awarding them the Best Player of the month in men's and women's sections.
With this Bumrah and Mandhana have become the first pair from a country to sweep the ICC Player of the Month award in men's and women's sections at the same time. Never before players from the same nation have bagged the honours in the same month.
Bumrah has become the second specialist Indian bowler to win the ICC Player of the Month award after Bhuvneshwar Kumar. This is his maiden monthly award, rewarding him for a jaw-dropping T20 World Cup last month. Meanwhile, this is Mandhana's first monthly award too. She is just the third Indian woman after Hamranpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma to win this award.
Bumrah was instrumental in India lifting the T20 World Cup last year after beating South Africa in the final. He was almost unplayable throughout the tournament and produced match-winning spells, including that of 3/14 against Pakistan and a game-turning 2/18 against South Africa in the final. In all, he took 15 wickets in eight matches at an economy rate of 4.17 and an average of 8.26. Insane numbers. For this performance, he was also adjudged as the Player of the Tournament in the World Cup.
Mandhana was also fabulous last month with the bat against South Africa in an ODI series and the one-off Test. She scored three centuries in four matches last month and a 90 to be the clear winner of the monthly honour. Mandhana was named the Player of the series in the ODI setup for her twin centuries and a 90 in the third ODI.
For winning the Player of the Month award, Bumrah edged past competition from other nominees - teammate and World Cup-winning captain Rohit Sharma and Afghanistan’s Rahmanullah Gurbaz. In the women's section, Mandhana had to sail past other nominees - England’s Maia Bouchier and Sri Lanka’s Vishmi Gunaratne - to bag the honour.
