Two highly impactful Sri Lankan stars join a fast-scoring Australian batter in the ICC Men’s Player of the Month nominees for September 2024, based on matches that were completed during the calendar month.
Travis Head (Australia)
Travis Head underlined his status as one of the leading limited-overs batters in the world to put himself in contention for the ICC Men’s Player of the Month award for September.
Continuing to excel in his role as white-ball opener for Australia, Head produced a string of impressive knocks against England and Scotland on his team’s recent tour.
Across his five T20I appearances in the month, Head scored 182 runs at a ridiculous strike rate of 245.94. Those efforts included a 23-ball 59 against England and a phenomenal 25-ball 80 against Scotland, which helped Australia rack up 113 runs in the Powerplay overs – the highest Powerplay total ever registered by a full member nation in a T20I.
Head’s month got arguably even better as he was named Player of the Series in Australia’s 3-2 ODI victory over England.
Head scored 248 runs at an average of 82.66 in his four innings in the five-match series, hitting at a strike rate of 120.97 and picking up six wickets on the tour to boot, most notably bagging 4/28 in the decisive fifth ODI to help Australia win the series.
Prabath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka)
Sri Lanka’s left-arm spinner continued his remarkable Test form to earn him a nomination for the September Player of the Month award.
Jayasuriya played a huge role in his team’s series win over New Zealand, taking nine wickets in each of the two Test victories, including a five-wicket haul in each match.
His 5/68 in the second innings of the first Test in Galle came on a dramatic final day as the tourists were bowled out 63 runs shy of their target.
And the 32-year-old’s 6/42 in the second Test set up what was a crushing victory to seal the series.
Over the course of the month he took 21 wickets at 27.90 in three Tests, including the second Test in England.
And in the month he became the fastest Sri Lankan in history to reach 100 wickets in Test cricket, doing so after just 16 matches. No Sri Lankan bowler has previously reached the landmark in fewer than 24 Tests.
Kamindu Mendis (Sri Lanka)
The remarkable start to Kamindu Mendis’ Test career continued as records tumbled for the stylish left-hander in September.
Mendis played four Tests in the month, scoring 451 runs at an average of 90.20, helping his side to a consolation win at The Oval in England before playing his part in a superb series victory against New Zealand back in Sri Lanka.
During the month, Mendis became the first men’s player in history to pass fifty in each of the first eight matches of his Test career.
And during September he became the fastest batter in 75 years to bring up 1000 Test runs – doing so in just eight Tests and matching Don Bradman’s effort of reaching the landmark in 13 innings.
His biggest score of the month was a dominant 182* in Sri Lanka’s mammoth first-innings total of 602/5 declared in the second Test against New Zealand, a knock that helped set up a convincing win.
But arguably more impressive was his 114 in the first innings of the first Test of that series.
His side had been in trouble at 88/3 when Mendis came in to bat, with Angelo Mathews also having retired hurt. No other batter on either side reached triple figures in the match, which Sri Lankan went on to win by just 63 runs.
(ICC)
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