by Arthur Crabtree » Fri Jan 06, 2017 5:21 pm
Young Player of the Year.
Well done to Young Player of 2015, Kagiso Rabada, for becoming the Emerging Player of 2016. His successor is considerably junior to the boy from Johannesburg. MEHEDI HASAN made his Test debut in Chittagong in October, still eighteen. Earlier in 2016, he led Bangladesh to their first Under 19 World Cup semi final, where he was more of a batting all rounder. In his debut series for the senior team he made a big impression as his country's leading spinner with 19 (out of 40) wickets at under 16. He was Player of the Series as Bangladesh beat England in a Test for the first time. Couldn't buy a run with the bat though....
Associates Player of the Year.
And Mehedi is in turn senior to the Associates winner this year. RASHID KHAN, a mature looking seventeen year old from Nangarhar, picked up votes in the Young Player of the Year category, but was a strong winner for the Associates award. All three nominated players were from Afghanistan, with Mohammad Shahzad and Mohammad Nabi also scoring. Leg spinner Rashid only made his international debut in late 2015; over the last year, against good opposition (Scotland, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Bangladesh), he took 22 wickets in 12 ODIs averaging under 20. His T20 international record was also superb. It'll be great to see him at the ICC Champions Trophy in England this summer.
Oh. Or the next World Cup then.
Oh.
Rashid also hit a fifty and took 12 wickets (for 122) in an unofficial Test against England Lions in December; his first class debut. At seventeen!
I always say that everybody's right.