Babar Azam leads the way in PCB Awards 2020

Brilliant Babar Azam has been named as the Most Valuable Cricketer of the Year as Pakistan Cricket Board announced its 2020 Awards winner Friday.

Babar, who has been appointed Pakistan captain of all three formats this year, was in a staggering form as he scored 875 runs in a curtailed calendar year in all formats.

Babar scored 338 runs in four Tests including a century at an average of 67.60. In three ODIs, he scored 221 runs at an average of 110.5 including a century while in eight T20Is, he mustered 267 runs at an average of 55.2. His white ball exploits also earned him the White-ball Cricketer of the Year award as well.

However, it is his deputy in Tests Muhammad Rizwan, who also led Pakistan in the first Test against New Zealand, who won a Test Cricketer of the Year award. Rizwan scored 302 runs at an average of 43 in five Tests with four 50s and also claimed 12 dismissals behind the stumps.

Fawad Alam got another reprieve from the PCB as his outstanding performance against New Zealand in the first Test earned him Individual Performance of the Year award where he hit 102 runs in the second innings to take the match to the limit. Fawad remained sidelined for a decade despite being leading run-scorer in the domestic cricket and it took him 11 years to hit his second Test century as he scored the first hundred against Sri Lanka in 2009 on the eve of his debut Test.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kamran Ghulam has been named the Domestic Cricketer of the Year. Kamran has scintillating first class season this year as he is the only player who has crossed 1000runs mark in the event and still mustering more runs in the ongoing final of the event against Central Punjab and has crossed 1100 runs mark.

Fast bowler Naseem Shah named the Men’s Emerging International Cricketer of the Year. Naseem took 20 wickets in eight Tests at an average of 35.4 with his best figures remained as 5-31. Naseem also grabbed a hat-trick in the Tests.

Pakistan Under-19 captain Rohail Nazir named Men’s Emerging Cricketer of the Year. The wicketkeeper-batsman scored 1260 runs in the year in all the events he played and also claimed 48 dismissals behind the stumps.

Aliya Riaz named the Women’s Cricketer of the Year as Pakistani all-rounder made 267 runs and claimed five wickets in three domestic events.

Another all-rounder Fatima Sana wins the award for the Women's Emerging Cricketer of the Year. Fatima scored 145 runs and took 17 wickets during the year.

There was no surprise as Award for the Corporate Achievement of the Year goes to the successful staging of the PSLV completely in Pakistan for the first time ever since the inception of the event.

Spirit of Cricket award goes to Pakistan team visiting Bangladesh dressing room after their 2-0 win in the T20I series.

Asif Yaqoob won the award for PCB Umpire of the Year.