PCB awards in retrospect: Rizwan wins big after fabulous 2021

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) hosted a virtual digital ceremony of the PCB Awards 2021 on Thursday to appreciate the best performers of the year.

The players were nominated in different categories including the Most Valuable Cricketer of the Year, ODI Cricketer of the Year, Test Cricketer of the Year, T20I Cricketer of the Year, Women’s Cricketer of the Year, Emerging Cricketer of the Year and Domestic Cricketer of the Year.

Meanwhile, there were separate awards for the Most Impactful Performance of the Year, Umpire of the Year and Spirit of Cricket. The winners were adjudged by an independent panel, featuring former cricketers, veteran journalists and others.

Star wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan emerged as the most successful player as he bagged two precious awards, Most Valuable Cricketer of the Year and T20I Cricketer of the Year, for his extraordinary performance in the year across all formats.

The 29-year-old scored 455 Test, 134 ODI and 1,326 T20I runs, besides accounting for 56 batters behind the wickets across all formats.

Rizwan was ecstatic after seizing the most prestigious award after beating his skipper Babar Azam, ace pacers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Hasan Ali, who also had phenomenal outings throughout the year.

“I feel humbled and honoured to have been adjudged Pakistan’s Most Valuable Cricketer of 2021,” said Rizwan. “This is the PCB’s most prestigious award and to be recognised for my contributions in the team’s superlative performances across all formats in 2021 in such a way gives me tremendous satisfaction and happiness.”

The highest T20I run-getter of 2021 mentioned that he hit a century at the start of last year against South Africa and carried the momentum and confidence in the rest of the year.

He also gave credit to the bowling unit of the team for the Men-in-Green’s exceptional run in the shortest format of the game.

“I give a lot of credit to our bowlers who bowled their hearts out and didn’t let the pressure get onto the batters by maintaining pressure on the opponents throughout the year,” he said.

On the other hand, the right-arm fast bowler Hasan Ali clinched the Test Cricketer of the Year award for his impressive performance in nine Test matches, where he dismissed 41 batters. His tally of wickets included a 10-wicket haul and five five-fors.

The 27-year-old pacer made an emphatic comeback in February 2021 after missing out on a major chunk of international action in 2019 and 2020 due to multiple injuries.

He returned to Test cricket with a 10-wicket haul against South Africa in Rawalpindi, which helped the Green Caps win a red-ball series against the Proteas after 2003.

“Taking 10 wickets against South Africa in Rawalpindi in my second Test in nearly two years and helping Pakistan win the series 2-0 was one of my highlights of the year,” stated Hasan. “[It was] a very happy moment that set the stage for the remaining part of the year.”

Hasan was contesting for the award against the likes of right-handed opening batter Abid Ali, left-handed middle-order batter Fawad Alam and Shaheen Shah Afridi.

Moreover, the independent jury adjudged the right-arm fast-bowling allrounder Mohammad Wasim Jr the Emerging Player of the Year.

He was honoured with the prize courtesy of his consistent performance across formats that too in international as well as domestic fixtures.

The 20-year-old claimed 15 wickets in international games, seven in Pakistan Cup, 12 in Pakistan Super League, five in National T20 Cup and six in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.

The other nominees in the category were right-arm fast bowler Arshad Iqbal, pacer Shahnawaz Dahani and talented wicketkeeper-batter Azam Khan.

Dahani and Wasim Jr had fierce competition for the award; however, the latter was announced as the winner.

Shaheen Shah Afridi, who remained one of the most consistent and prominent performers for Pakistan in 2021, bagged the award for the Impactful Performance of the Year.

Fawad Alam’s heroic 109-run innings against South Africa, Hasan Ali’s 10 for 114 against the Proteas, Mohammad Rizwan’s 79 not out against the arch-rivals India in their opening contest of the T20 World Cup and Shaheen’s 3 for 31 against the Men-in-Blue of the same match were nominated in the category.

However, the jury members unanimously declared the left-arm pacer’s devastating bowling spell, where he dismissed Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli, as the Impactful Performance of the Year.

“I am extremely happy that my performance against our traditional rivals in a global event has been chosen as the Impactful Performance of the Year,” he said. “For the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, the team wanted an aggressive, fearless and convincing start to set the tone for the rest of the event and I am delighted that I was able to provide exactly that.”

The fiery opening spell helped Pakistan restrict India to 151/7. Later, when the Green Caps came out to bat, the opening pair of Babar Azam and Rizwan put on 152 runs together in 17.5 overs to hand their team the first-ever win against the neighbours in a World Cup fixture.

Furthermore, in the women’s category, Nida Dar was rewarded with the Women’s Cricketer of the Year award for her all-rounder performance.

Dar played six ODIs in 2021, where she scored 363 runs and sent six batters back to the pavilion. In the T20Is, she featured in six games, scoring 95 runs and taking five wickets. She was also a consistent performer in the domestic competitions as she put 146 runs on the board in the Women’s Pakistan Cup and dismissed 14 batters.

She was competing for the award against her fellow cricketers, including Aliya Riaz, Anam Amin and Fatima Sana.

In other awards, Sahibzada Farhan was named as the Domestic Cricketer of the Year courtesy of his 487 runs in the Pakistan Cup, 447 runs in the National T20 and 935 runs in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.

Meanwhile, Asif Yaqoob was recognised as the Umpire of the Year and the Pakistan team’s visit to Namibia’s dressing room after their game in the T20 World Cup was rated as the Spirit of Cricket moment.