Anisa Mo­hammed had some great per­for­mances this year and the ex­pe­ri­enced West In­dies off-spin­ner is look­ing to get even bet­ter in 2022. She was the lead­ing bowler in the world in One-Day In­ter­na­tion­als with 20 wick­ets in 12 match­es at 18 runs per wick­et. That con­firmed her po­si­tion among the best in the game and go­ing in­to the new year she sits at Num­ber 25 in the ICC ODI Bowl­ing rank­ings – the sec­ond-high­est for West In­dies – be­hind Hay­ley Matthews at 15th.

“It feels good to fin­ish on top fin­ish the most wick­ets in ODIs. It has been a while since I've ac­tu­al­ly picked up so many wick­ets so it's a re­al­ly good feel­ing and I'm hop­ing that I'm able to con­tin­ue in 2022. From Jan­u­ary to Ju­ly we did a lot of skills work in the build-up to the match­es, so I think that helped,” the 33-year-old Mo­hammed said.

The right-arm off break bowler said: “I think I've re­al­ly had a good year this year com­pared to the last five years. For 2022, hope­ful­ly, I can have an even bet­ter year than in 2021 and that would be ic­ing on the cake.”

Mo­hammed, who made her in­ter­na­tion­al de­but at 15, added: “The bat­ters around the world are im­prov­ing with more im­pro­vi­sa­tion and shot-se­lec­tion … their skills are get­ting bet­ter, so it is more chal­leng­ing. As a bowler you have to keep im­prov­ing as well, to stay on top of the game, so there is al­ways some­thing to work on.”

She played a cru­cial role in the se­ries wins against Pak­istan in the Caribbean in the sum­mer and away in No­vem­ber. Her best bowl­ing fig­ures were 4-27 off 9.4 overs against the Pak­ista­nis at the Coolidge Crick­et Ground. Over­all, it was the sec­ond-best of the year for West In­dies – Matthews had 4-26 in Karachi, while the third-best came from Shene­ta Grim­mond – who took 4-33 against the vis­it­ing South Africa at Sir Vi­vian Richards Sta­di­um in Sep­tem­ber.

Over­all, Mo­hammed is the most suc­cess­ful bowler in West In­dies his­to­ry. Since her de­but against Japan, back in 2003, she has tak­en 296 wick­ets at the in­ter­na­tion­al lev­el – 171 in 134 ODIs and 125 in 117 T20Is. She is ea­ger­ly look­ing for­ward to the ICC Women’s World Cup, which will be played in New Zealand in March and April.

Mo­hammed,a na­tive of San­gre Grande, who has played 122 ODI games and 111 Twen­ty20 match­es for the West In­dies said: “It is great we have qual­i­fied for the World Cup and every­one in the team is work­ing to­wards that tour­na­ment. It is a big oc­ca­sion in any sport, in any­one’s ca­reer to play in a World Cup and we re­al­ly want to put in a great per­for­mance for the West In­dies.”