Chamari Athapaththu has been crowned the ICC Women’s Player of the Month for September 2023 after inspiring Sri Lanka to a historic series triumph over England.
Athapaththu beat out South Africa pair Laura Wolvaardt and Nadine de Klerk to earn the award after an outstanding month that included leading Sri Lanka to a stunning series victory.
The Sri Lanka Women’s captain starred as her side claimed their first-ever series win over England in any format when coming out on top in two of their three Women’s T20I clashes.
Athapaththu was named player of the series for compiling 114 runs and taking five wickets as Sri Lanka started the month with the two critical Women’s T20I wins against England.
The all-rounder was pivotal to the pair of victories with scores of 55 and 44 against England, along with bowling figures of 1/11 and 3/21.
Athapaththu was also among the runs at the Women’s Asia Cup later in September as Sri Lanka faced Thailand, Pakistan and India.
In total the 33-year-old amassed 208 runs at an average of 26 across five WT20I innings and three WODIs in September.
The off-spinner also took five wickets for the month at an average of 26.6 across the white-ball formats.
The left-handed batter is currently No.3 in the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s ODI Batting Rankings, and No.7 in the Women’s T20I Batting Rankings.
Meanwhile, India’s rising star Shubman Gill is the ICC Men’s Player of the Month for September 2023 after dominating a stretch of ODIs ahead of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.
Gill held off teammate Mohammed Siraj and England opener Dawid Malan to claim the award after compiling 480 ODI runs at an average of 80 during September.
The opener made the most runs at the Asia Cup with 302 at an average of 75.5, including an unbeaten 27* as India crushed Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in the final.
Gill backed up his strong tournament form with 178 runs in two innings against Australia as India fine-tuned for the Cricket World Cup on home soil.
The right-hander smashed a century against Australia (104) in the second of those ODIs, after reaching three figures against Bangladesh (121) during the Asia Cup for two tons in September.
Gill also scored three half-centuries last month and was only dismissed for less than fifty on two occasions from eight innings in that time.
The 24-year-old has an incredible record in ODIs with 1917 runs in 35 matches at an average of 66.1 and at a strike rate of 102.84, and is No.2 in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s ODI Batting Rankings.
Gill has missed India’s opening matches of the Cricket World Cup due to illness but looms as pivotal to the hosts’ chances of lifting the trophy for the first time since 2011.
--ICC
