ICC Awards 2024: Smriti Mandhana Among Nominees For ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of The Year

Star India opener Smriti Mandhana was on Sunday (December 29) nominated for ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year alongside South African star Laura Wolvaardt, Sri Lanka all-rounder Chamari Athapaththu and Australia's Annabel Sutherland.

Mandhana amassed 747 runs in 12 ODI innings this year, scoring at an average of 61.91, with strike rate of 95.15, with four centuries and three fifties. Her best score in 2024 was 136.

A pair of centuries in June against South Africa in Bengaluru really got Mandhana's 2024 campaign rolling and the left-hander managed two further hundreds later in the year to stay in good touch right up until December.

Mandhana managed a total of 343 runs from three innings in a 'Player of the Series' effort against South Africa got her third hundred of 2024 when amassing 100 in the final match of India's home series against New Zealand right after the completion of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup.

Another hundred followed in the final match of her side's three-game series with Australia in December, but that was in vain as the Aussies completed a 3-0 series sweep of their own.

Mandhana's best all-round effort came in the second match of India's home series against South Africa in June, when she scored a century and picked up a key wicket to help her side to a narrow four-wicket victory.

The 28-year-old got India going with a brilliant innings of 136 from just 120 deliveries, that included 18 fours and two sixes - as the side managed to amass a big total of 325/3 after they were sent into bat.

Mandhana then picked up the key wicket of Sune Luus during South Africa's reply as the Proteas fell agonisingly short of victory.

Also, South Africa's Wolvaardt commenced the year in a glut as she managed just seven runs from three innings against Australia, but that lack of form didn't last long as the South Africa captain went on a run-scoring spree in almost every ODI contest that followed that series, as per ICC.

In 12 innings, she made 697 runs at an average of 87.12, with three centuries and three fifties and best score of 184* against Sri Lanka, against whom she also scored her other ODI hundred this year.

Athapaththu, on the other hand, earned double nomination, having already been shortlisted for the Women's T20I cricketer of the year. In nine innings, Chamari made 458 runs at an average of 65.42, with a strike rate of 101.10, with best score of 195*. She also took nine wickets at an average of 32.22.

Australia's Sutherland made 369 runs in nine innings at an average of 52.71, with two centuries and a fifty. Her best score was 110. She also took 13 wickets averaging 17.69. The winner will be decided based on votes with the announcement coming next month.