Kohli, Perry named ICC players of decade

India captain Virat Kohli and Australia all-rounder Ellyse Perry have been named as the International Cricket Council's players of the decade.

The awards, held in place of the usual end-of-year ceremony due to the effects of Covid-19 on the fixture calendar, were primarily decided by a panel of former players and experts, with a 10 per cent weighting on a public vote.

Kohli claimed the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for his performances across all formats, scoring an unmatched 20,396 runs in the period and also picked up the ODI cricketer of the year award.

Perry went one better, celebrating a hat-trick by taking the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award for women's cricketer of the decade alongside the ODI and T20 prizes. As well as taking more wickets than anyone else, with 213, she also piled up 4,349 runs.

Kohli, pictured, was pre - vented from a similar clean sweep with Steve Smith named Test player of the decade and Afghanistan leg-spinner Rash id Khan topping the T20 vote. Smith edged out a field that included England duo Joe Root and James Anderson. The latter was one of four Englishmen to make the men's Test team of the decade, joining Sir Alastair Cook, Ben Stokes and Stuart Broad. Meanwhile, Australia were staring at the prospect of a heavy defeat by India after a secondinnings batting collapse on day three of the second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Australians head into day four on 133 for six, with a lead of just two runs.

After resuming on 277 for five in their first innings, India suffered a collapse themselves and were all out for 326. Trailing by 131 from the first innings, Australia crashed from 98 for three to 99 for six, flirting with the prospect of an innings defeat.