Virat Kohli bags two top honours at the ICC Awards

Virat Kohli

Sir Garfield Sobers award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade

ICC Men’s ODI Player of the Decade

The numbers*

Tests: 86 matches, 7240 runs, 53.62 average, 27 100s

ODIs: 208 matches, 10388 runs, 61.83 average, 39 100s

T20Is: 80 matches, 2768 runs, 50.32 average, 24 50s

*Stats from January 1, 2011, to October 7, 2020, the period taken into consideration for the ICC awards

Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade nominees

R Ashwin (India)
Virat Kohli (India)
Joe Root (England)
Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)
Steve Smith (Australia)
AB de Villiers (South Africa)
Kane Williamson (New Zealand

ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Decade nominees

MS Dhoni (India)
Virat Kohli (India)
Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka)
Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)
Rohit Sharma (India)
Mitchell Starc (Australia)
AB de Villiers (South Africa)

India’s Virat Kohli has won two prestigious individual honours a day after becoming the only player to be in all three ICC Men’s Teams of the Decade. Kohli took home both the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade and the ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Decade.

Kohli’s potential was evident as far back as in 2008, when he led India to a win in the ICC under-19 World Cup in 2008.

His leadership qualities were evident in the early years of his international career. When India lifted the 2011 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup — with Kohli playing a vital, underrated role in the final — his words after the game spoke of someone mature beyond their years.

"Tendulkar has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years. It is time we carried him on our shoulders,” a 22-year-old Kohli said then. Over the next decade, he took that responsibility upon himself, as he became India’s leading batsman across formats.

He has 43 ODI centuries and within sight of Tendulkar’s record of 49 hundreds in the format. The standout feature of his limited-overs career has been his ability in the chase, scoring 35 centuries in ODI victories, 22 of the, coming in successful run-chases. He was also Player of the Tournament in the 2014 and 2016 ICC T20 World Cups.

In the longer format, he has been India’s most successful captain, with 33 Test victories including a memorable series win in Australia in 2018-19. He has Test hundreds in seven of the eight countries he has played in with six double hundreds in 2016 and 2017 combined, a golden period in his long-format career.

Career highlights

2011 World Cup title
2013 Champions Trophy
2018-19 Test series win in Australia

Favourite ODI innings

183 v Pakistan, Asia Cup 2012
35 v Sri Lanka, World Cup 2011 final
100* v Australia, Jaipur 2013 – 52-ball century to chase down 360
115* v Australia, Nagpur – off 66 balls to help chase down 351

Superstat

A clear indicator of Kohli’s ability to adapt his game to various formats is that he averages over 50 in Tests, ODIs and T20Is, the only person to do so.

Quote

MS Dhoni in 2018: "Virat [Kohli] is the best and he's already reached a status where he is close to a legend stage. I am happy for him and the way he has batted. He has been brilliant in the last few years. He has taken the team forward and that's what you want from a leader.”