6 Best Associate players of the year 2015

Over the past decade, the emergence of Associate nations has been one of the brighter developments in cricket in this millennium. While they have not yet reached the levels of being termed as cricket giants, they have made enough ripples for the top teams to be wary of them.

And why not? The results for the Associates have been quite favorable to them this year. Be it Ireland’s clinical victory over the ailing Windies, or Afghanistan’s incredible record against the Zimbabweans this year. Even the on-going series between the two nations shows how far Afghanistan has matured as a cricketing nation, and along with Ireland, they have been the figurehead for the Associates’ development and thereby enforcing the ICC to allocate a larger surplus of profits to the Associates in the coming decade.

And some of the players from these teams stood above the rest this year. In this list, we take a look at the best performing Associate players of 2015.

1. Khurram Khan (UAE):

Not many might have expected that a 43-year-old batsman from UAE will be the only ICC award winner from Asia this year. But that’s exactly how the events unfolded. Khurram’s consistency over the year was well appreciated with an ICC Associate player of the year award. And it was well deserved, considering his tally of 425 runs in 9 ODIs in the 2014-15 season. Additionally, his contribution in UAE’s qualification into the ICC World Cup was remarkable. He may not be able to see past a couple of years in the national jersey, but he will surely cherish the pinnacle of his cricketing career- winning the ICC Associates player of the year award and helping UAE qualify for the World Cup.