New Zealand’s Devon Conway entitled as the ICC Player of the Month for June

New Zealand left-arm opener Devon Conway has been voted as the best player of June in international cricket by former players, eminent sports journalists, and supporters around the world. 

Conway has overtaken his Kiwi teammate Kyle Jamieson and Proteas wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock in the race for the award. Jamieson was the man of the match in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) Final and De Cock had a great performance on the West Indies tour.

Conway has scored a historic double century on debut against England at Lord’s Cricket Stadium on his way to being named Cricketer of the Month. He is the first and still the only cricketer to score a double century in the Test debut at Lord’s.

Conway has also scored 2 Fifties in two Tests against England earlier in June. In all, he played 3 Tests in June and scored 379 runs at an average of 63.16 with 1 century and 2 fifties, thanks to this he has won the award.

Conway is very excited to get such recognition from the ICC. He is feeling honored to receive this award. Since he got it because of his performance in Test cricket, its specialty is much more to him.

The ICC has introduced the Cricketer of the Month Award since the beginning of this year. Conway became the first New Zealand cricketer to win the award in the sixth month. Not only that, this is the first time that a cricketer from outside Asia has been selected as the best of the month.

In the previous five months, the award was won by Rishabh Pant, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar of India, Babar Azam of Pakistan, and Mushfiqur Rahim of Bangladesh, respectively.

Last month, Mushfiqur Rahim became the first Bangladeshi to win the award in the men’s category. The Bangladeshi wicketkeeper-batsman ahead Pakistan’s Hasan Ali and Sri Lanka’s Praveen Jayawickrama.

From January 2021, the ICC has started the process of selecting one male and one female cricketer for each month. One player is selected from a shortlist of top 3 performers of the month in world cricket. Members of an ICC voting panel have 90 percent of the voting rights, while supporters can cast the remaining 10 percent. The award is usually announced on the second Monday of every month.

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