Kohli ICC player of the decade
DUBAI: India captain Virat Kohli on Monday headlined the ICC top honours for the decade, winning the Sir Garfield Sobers award for the best male cricketer of the past 10 years. Kohli was also picked for the ODI Cricketer of the Decade award.
Former India skipper M S Dhoni won the ‘ICC Spirit of Cricket Award of the Decade’, chosen by fans for his gesture of calling back England batsman Ian Bell after a bizarre run out in the Nottingham Test in 2011.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) made the announcements via twitter, bestowing the top honours on Kohli, who scored 66 out of his 70 international hundreds, in the “ICC Awards” period. In the same period, he was also the batsman with most fifties (94), most runs (20396) besides having the maximum average (56.97) among players with 70 plus innings.
Overall, the 32-year-old has amassed 12040 runs in ODIs, 7318 runs in Tests and 2928 runs in T20 Internationals, averaging more than 50 across formats. Kohli was also part of the World Cup-winning India squad in 2011, something he will cherish for life. The other nominees of the ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade were R Ashwin, Joe Root, Kumar Sangakkara, Steve Smith, Ab de Villiers and Kane Williamson.
“Firstly, it’s a great honour for me to receive this award. The moments I hold closest to my heart in the last decade definitely has to be the World Cup win in 2011, the Champions Trophy win in 2013 and winning the series in Australia in 2018,” said Kohli in a statement.
On Sunday, Kohli was the lone player to be named in teams of the decade across formats and was named captain of the Test all-stars. “ODI cricket is something that I took to very early. I came to the ODI team first and then, I made my Test debut a couple of years later,” Kohli said.
“So, I got the understanding of my game pretty soon.”