India's senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and swashbuckling wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant were on Wednesday nominated for the newly-introduced player of the month awards by the International Cricket Council. Besides Ashwin and Pant, two other Indians -- Mohammed Siraj and T Natarajan -- are also in the fray. All of them played a stellar role in India's recent historic Test series win against Australia.

The world body said the awards will recognise the best performances of both male and female cricketers across all forms of international cricket throughout the year. Other players named for the awards for January are England captain Joe Root, star Australia batsman Steve Smith, Rahmanullah Gurbaz of Afghanistan, Marizanne Kapp and Nadine de Klerk of South Africa and Nida Dar of Pakistan. Fans are invited to vote online every month to award their favourite male and female cricketers across all formats of international cricket played in that month, the ICC said in a release.