Kohli pips Smith for ICC’S top honour in 2017
NEW DELHI: India skipper Virat Kohli’s sensational run with the bat over the last two years has won him the ICC Cricketer of the Year for 2017 for the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy and the ODI Cricketer of the Year, becoming the first player to achieve this double, the ICC announced on Thursday.
Australia skipper Steve Smith, the player with whom Kohli has been on a race for the best batsman in the world, was voted the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year.
Kohli became only India’s second batsman to touch the 900 ratings point mark in Test rankings. He hit 900 following his 153 in Centurion while Gavaskar had risen to 916 points.
Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal claimed the ICC T20I Performance of the Year for his match-winning 6/25 against England in Bangalore in February, 2017.
Kohli also receives the honour of being named skipper of the ICC Test and ODI teams of the Year.
In the race for the best in ODIS,
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Kohli is the fourth Indian after Rahul Dravid (2004), Sachin Tendulkar (2010) and R Ashwin (2016) to win this award.
Kohli has become only the second India batsman after Sunil Gavaskar to reach the 900-ranking point mark.
Kohli is the 31st batsman in history to reach 900 points. Pakistan’s Hasan Ali and Rohit Sharma were second and third respectively.
“It means a lot to me… I won the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year back in 2012 but this is the first time I have won the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy. It is a huge honour for me as it is probably the biggest award we have in world cricket. Two Indians winning it back to back makes it more special,”he said in the ICC statement. R Ashwin won the overall honours for 2016.
Pakistan beating holders India to win the ICC Champions Trophy was voted by fans as the ICC Fans Moment of the Year.
Test team: Dean Elgar, David Warner, Virat Kohli (capt), Steven Smith, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ben Stokes, Quinton de Kock (wk), R Ashwin, Mitchell Starc, Kagiso Rabada, James Anderson
ODI team: David Warner, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (capt), Babar Azam, AB de Villiers, Quinton de Kock (wk), Ben Stokes, Trent Boult, Hasan Ali, Rashid Khan, Jasprit
Bumrah.