India's Arshdeep Singh was the only one from the T20 World Cup winning squad to find a place in ICC's nominations for the T20I Cricketer of the Year Award. Arshdeep, the joint-fourth highest wicket-taker of the year in T20Is (36 in 18 matches, has the best average among the top 10 leading wicket-takers of the year (13.5) apart from Hong Kong's Ehsan Khan. Arshdeep was one of the mainstays of the Indian line-up and was the joint-highest wicket-taker in the T20 World Cup 2024, which India ended up winning by beating South Africa in the final.
In just two and a half years since his debut, Arshdeep is on the heels of becoming the leading wicket-taker for India in T20Is (95), being just two away from Yuzvendra Chahal, who started playing the format at the highest level in 2016 and was the key member of the side till 2023. Even though his economy has gone up, which rings true for most of the bowlers around the world unless you are a Jasprit Bumrah or Rashid Khan, Arshdeep's consistency with wickets has been astounding.
Most of the matches will see Arshdeep chip away with a couple of wickets and maybe three, and the important ones more often than not as the left-armer has become the second most crucial bowler for India after Bumrah in the T20I line-up.
The other nominees included Pakistan's Babar Azam, who despite a middling year, was his side's leading run-getter in the format, the heart and soul of Zimbabwe's white-ball side, Sikandar Raza and Australia's Travis Head, who took his T20 game, rather overall game to the next level in 2024.
Raza overtook Suryakumar Yadav to win the most Player of the Match awards in T20Is (17). Raza had a terrific all-round year scoring 573 runs with the bat while taking 24 wickets with the ball. Babar, on the other hand, despite all the concerns around his form, was the leading run-getter in the format among full-time nations as he amassed 738 runs in 23 innings at an average of 33.5 with an improved strike rate of 133.2. Babar is also inches away from becoming the leading run-getter in T20Is as he is breathing down Rohit Sharma's neck, who has retired from the format.
This was the second day of ICC's list of nominations for annual awards after the release of emerging players lists. India's Shreyanka Patil was part of the women's emerging players nominations list, which included Scotland's Saskia Horley, South Africa's Annerie Dercksen and Ireland's Freya Sargent. Among the boys, Gus Atkinson, Kamindu Mendis, Pakistan's Saim Ayub and West Indies' Gabba hero Shamar Joseph found their names on the list.
