Winning Sir Garfield Sobers Award Means a Lot to Me - Virat Kohli

India captain, Virat Kohli, won his maiden Sir Garfield Sobers Award. Kohli shone for the national side in both Tests and ODIs to bag the highest honour. He scored 1059 runs in Tests which also included three double centuries.

In the ODI format, Kohli was the highest runscorer and scored 1460 runs, which included six centuries too. Kohli also led his team to the final of the ICC Champions Trophy in the first attempt, as the captain in an ICC tournament too. Under him, Indian team also whitewashed Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka in all the nine games that India played mid-year across all formats.

Kohli was also a nominee in the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year Award and ICC Test Cricketer of the Year award. Kohli won in the race in ODI format and bagged the ICC ODI Cricketer of the year award.

On the other hand, Steven Smith won the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year award. Virat Kohli has also been appointed as the captain of ICC’s Test and ODI cricket team.

He tumbled oodles of records in the year 2017 when he went past Ricky Ponting’s record of 30 centuries and is now the second on the list of most centuries in the ODI format. If Kohli continues to play like this in the ODI format, then he might also top the list of most ODI centuries.

In the longest format as well, Kohli now has six double centuries, three of which came in the year 2017.

Here is what a jovial Kohli said after winning the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy –

“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. 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. Your performances on the field will always remain iconic and you were one of the very few who have changed the way the game is played.”