South Africa’s cricketers have taken centre stage in the latest International Cricket Council (ICC) Player of the Month shortlists, with Laura Wolvaardt and Senuran Muthusamy both earning nominations after exceptional performances in October’s international fixtures.

Wolvaardt, who captained the Proteas to their first-ever Women’s Cricket World Cup final, produced one of the tournament’s defining innings with a commanding 169 against England in the semi-final. Her consistent form, which included a hundred in the final against India (which the Proteas lost) and several half-centuries, helped lift her to the top of the ICC Women’s ODI batting rankings and cemented her status as one of the world’s leading batters.

She is joined on the women’s list by India’s Smriti Mandhana, who had also performed well with the bat in the Women’s World Cup, and Australia’s allrounder, Ash Gardner, whose performance at the World Cup saw her reach the Top Three of both the batting and bowling ODI rankings.

In the men’s category, all three nominees are spinners. South Africa’s Muthusamy earned his place through a standout Test series against Pakistan, claiming 11 wickets at 18.36 and scoring a career-best 89 not out in the second Test. Pakistan’s Noman Ali and Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan round off the list after dominant wicket-taking displays across Test and limited-overs formats respectively.

The winners will be decided by a combination of votes from an ICC panel and fans around the world.