Asif Ali beats Shakib to become October’s player-of-the-month

Pakistan's hard-hitting batter Asif Ali has been named October's player-of-the-month by ICC as he beat Bangladesh's premier allrounder Shakib Al Hasan to the punch.

Asif has scored only 52 runs throughout October. However, he played a couple of match-winning knocks for Pakistan at a staggering strike rate of 273.68 in the ongoing T20 World Cup. 

His annihilating knock of 27 off 12 helped Pakistan bounce back from a precarious situation to beat New Zealand in a Super 12 clash of the T20 World Cup. 

He followed this up with a destructive knock that featured four maximums in a single over against Afghanistan in the next match. Overall, he had a direct influence on Pakistan staying undefeated throughout the world cup so far.

Asif, however, had a tough competition with Shakib to achieve the milestone. Shakib played six matches for Bangladesh in the ongoing world cup before being ruled out due to injury. 

He shone with both bat and ball for the Tigers. The 34-year-old scored 131 runs at an average of 21.83 while also scalping 11 wickets at an economy of  5.59. He also reached the milestone of becoming the highest wicket-taker in T20I cricket and also in T20 World Cups.