ICC Awards: Virat Kohli Named ICC Cricketer of the Year

For the second year in a row, the ICC Cricketer of the Year award has been bagged by an Indian, as Virat Kohli, on Thursday (January 18), was named the winner of the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy at the 2017 ICC Awards for his exceptional performances across all formats.

The award was won by Kohli’s teammate Ravichandran Ashwin last year. Kohli has now become the fourth India player and 13th player overall to win the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy.

In the qualification period from September 21, 2016, to the end of 2017, Kohli scored 2,203 Test runs at an average of 77.80 including six double-centuries, 1,818 ODI runs at 82.63 including seven hundreds, and 299 T20I runs at a strike-rate of 153. Under his captaincy, India is among the top three teams in the world. All of that came culminated in his winning the prestigious award.

ICC Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy
??? Virat Kohli

With India flying high at the top of the rankings, @imVkohli scored 2203 Test runs at 77.80 (eight ?s), 1818 ODI runs at 82.63 (seven ?s), and 299 T20I runs at a strike rate of 153.

More ➡️ https://t.co/6ITiEAJEVn#ICCAwards pic.twitter.com/D9qOFCodIk

— ICC (@ICC) January 18, 2018

“It means a lot to win to win the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for becoming the ICC Cricketer of the Year 2017 and also the ICC ODI Player of the Year,” he said. “I won that back in 2012 also but it’s the first time winning the Garfield Sobers Trophy, and it’s a huge honour for me. It’s probably the biggest of all in world cricket and two Indians getting it back-to-back makes it more special.

“Last time it was Ash [Ravichandran Ashwin], and this time I’m getting it, so I’m really really honoured, and I’d like to thank the ICC for recognising all the hard work that we all put in for our respective sides, and I want to congratulate all the other winners also,” he added.

Kohli’s performance with the bat and his leadership has been nothing short of phenomenal since he led the team to a historic 2-1 Test series win in Sri Lanka in 2015 in what was his first full series as permanent captain.

What defined his captaincy in the last couple of years was how he led the team from the front. The India skipper scored a staggering 2818 runs across all formats in international cricket in 2017 – the third-highest tally ever recorded in a calendar year. His second successive double century against Sri Lanka in December helped him to set a new record for most double-centuries by captains in Tests – six – going past Brian Lara who had five.

Until 2015, he had 11 hundreds from 72 innings in 41 Tests with the highest score of 169. Since then, he has scored nine centuries in 22 Tests, converting six of them into a double with all of them coming during the qualification period.

In ODIs, Kohli went past former Australian captain Ricky Ponting to second place in the all-time ODI centurion list with his 31st hundred that came against New Zealand in Mumbai in October last year. During his 32nd ODI century, again against New Zealand in Kanpur, Kohli became the fastest batsman to 9,000 ODI runs and the most successful captain in an ODI year, surpassing Ponting. He also regained the No 1 spot in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen with 889 rating points, the best by an Indian.