Dubai: Indian captain Virat Kohli, who displayed tremendous form last year as a batsman and inspired India to many victories, has bagged the prestigious International Cricket Council’s Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC Cricketer of the Year 2017 and has also been named as the captain of the ICC Men’s Test and ODI Teams of the Year 2017. He was also named as the One Day Internatonal players.
Kohli won the ICC’s top awards through his remarkable consistency during the qualification period for the awards from September 21, 2016 to the end of 2017. He 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. His captaincy lifted India to number-one ranking in Tests and second rank in One-day Internationals.
Commenting on his haul of top awards, Kohli said: “It means a lot to me to win the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year and ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year. 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.” Ravichandran Ashwin had bagged the ICC Cricketer of the Year award in 2016.
Australia skipper Steve Smith, who too has been consistent with the bat, won the ICC Test Player of the year award. During the voting period he piled up 1875 runs at a remarkable average of 78.12 with eight centuries and five half centuries.
Leading Australia to a 4-0 Ashes series victory he scored 687 runs for a splendid average of 137.40.
Kohli figures along with four other consistent cricketers in both the Test and ODI sides such like Australia’s David Warner, Ben Stokes of England, and South Africa wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock.
Pakistan pacer Hasan Ali became the first player from their country to bag the ICC’s Emerging Cricketer of the Year He had bagged 45 wickets in 18 ODIs in 2017 at an average of 17.04, and emerged as the leading wicket-taker at the 2017 Champions Trophy with 13 wickets to help Pakistan lift the trophy.
Fans selected Pakistan stunning India to win the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 as their favourite moment of the year.
Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan bagged the ICC Associate Cricketer of the Year award. In 2017 Khan bagged 60 wickets which is a record for an associate player in a calendar year. His 43 wickets from ODIs, is another record for a player from non-Test playing nation.
Umpire Marais Erasmus won the David Shepherd Trophy for ICC Umpire of the Year for second successive year. India’s leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal won the ICC T20I Performance of the Year award for his 6 for 25 against England in Bengaluru.
Box:
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year — Virat Kohli)
Test Cricketer of the Year — Steve Smith
ODI Cricketer of the Year — Virat Kohli
Emerging Cricketer of the Year — Hasan Ali
Associate Cricketer of the Year — Rashid Khan
T20I Performance of the Year — Yuzvendra Chahal
David Shepherd Trophy for ICC Umpire of the Year — Marais Erasmus
Test team of the year: 1 Dean Elgar, 2 David Warner, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Steven Smith, 5 Cheteshwar Pujara, 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Quinton de Kock (wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 James Anderson
ODI team of the year: 1 David Warner, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Babar Azam, 5 AB de Villiers, 6, Quinton de Kock (wk), 7 Ben Stokes, 8 Trent Boult, 9 Hasan Ali, 10 Rashid Khan, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
