All three of the nominees had a stellar outing for their national sides during last month’s Asia Cup and Asian Games editions
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India’s Shafali Verma plays a shot during the women’s T20 cricket final against Sri Lanka at the Asian Games 2026, at Korogi Sports Park, in Nisshin, Japan on Tuesday, September 22, 2026(Photo: IANS/Biplab Banerjee)
The nominations for the International Cricket Council’s women’s player of the month for September are in and there are two Indians out of the three nomineesThis award by the ICC is given to that one such player who made impactful contributions for the team and produced extraordinary individual performances.
All three of the nominations are interestingly from AsiaThere were two continental events in September with the first being the women’s Asia Cup in Dubai and the second is the Asian Games 2026 at Aichi and Nagoya where cricket was featured for the second edition in a row.
On both the tournaments, it was Harmanpreet Kaur’s side that won the titles, that too, against the very same opponentOn September 13, the reigning women’s ODI world champions, defeated Sri Lanka to win the Asia Cup title and just a week later, the Indians defeated the Lankans to defend their gold medal.
With nothing else going around in women’s cricket, nominations from a single continent was the only way out.
Shafali Verma
Starting the three-player list is India’s explosive opening batter Shafali Verma who was a key part of the Indian teams that shun at the Asia Cup and Asian GamesThe opening batter scored a total of 360 runs from seven T20Is at a daunting strike rate of 184.61 and average of 72She also made her presence felt with the ball, scalping six wckets at an economy rate of 4.33.
She had also finished as the highest run-scorer at the Asia Cup with 236 runs in five outings and also scored fifties in the semi-final and final against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka respectivelyShafali carried the same form to the Asian Games where she scored 188 runs and also notched her maiden T20I century.
Chamari Athapaththu
The Sri Lankan captain also had a memorable outing in the month of September, but her side remained second best on back-to-back occasions at the Asia Cup and Asian Games.
Athapaththu’s all-round performance saw her score 226 runs from seven T20Is at a strike rate of 140.37With the ball, she racked up 14 wickets with an economy rate of 6.08Her best performance came in the Asia Cup when she scalped figures of 7/5 against Indonesia and that also included a hat-trick.
Sree Charani
Last but not the least, India’s left-arm off-spinner Sree Charani is the third nominee for the player of the month awardCharani registered 18 wickets in seven outings at a magnificent economy rate of 3.30.
The youngster scalped 12 wickets int he Asia Cup and starred in the finale with figures of 4/20At the Asian Games, she accounted for eight wicketsThe month of September also saw her surpass Australia’s Megan Schutt to become the highest-rate women’s T20I bowler with 817 rating points.
