As the second decade of the century comes to a close the ICC have announced the nominations for the awards of the decade. AS expected India captain Virat Kohli features in multiple categories.
Kohli has been nominated in 5 categories in the ICC Awards of the Decade – Player, ODI Player, Test Player, T20I Player and Spirit of Cricket.
Kohli, Steve Smith, Joe Root and Kane Williamson have done well consistently and are in the mix along with R Ashwin, Kumar Sangakkara and AB de Villiers for the Sir Gary Sobers Award which is for the Male Cricketer of the Decade.
The India captain smashed his maiden ODI ton on December 24, 2009 against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens and almost 11 years later he has scored 42 more. Since crossing 1000 runs in a calendar year for the first time in 2011, Kohli has aggregated 10,388 runs in just 202 ODI innings between 2011 and 2020.
His first Test hundred came in a losing cause against Australia at the Adelaide Oval in January 2012. However, that did not stop him from scoring 7,240 in 145 Test innings. The captain averages of 53.63 – including 27 centuries and 22 half-centuries.
Kohli, an ODI World Cup winner in 2011, played just one T20I innings before 2011, and is already the leading run-getter – 2,794 runs at an average and strike-rate of 50.80 and 138.25 respectively – in the format in international cricket.
ICC Men’s Player of the Decade
Nominees: Virat Kohli (India), Joe Root (England), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Steve Smith (Australia), Ravichandran Ashwin (India), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)
ICC Men’s Test Player of the Decade
Nominees: Virat Kohli (India), Joe Root (England), Steve Smith (Australia), James Anderson (England), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka), Yasir Shah (Pakistan)
ICC Men’s ODI Player of the Decade
Nominees: Virat Kohli (India), Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka), Mitchell Starc (Australia), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Rohit Sharma (India), MS Dhoni (India), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)
ICC Men’s T20I Player of the Decade
Nominees: Rashid Khan (Afghanistan), Virat Kohli (India), Rohit Sharma (India), Imran Tahir (South Africa), Aaron Finch (Australia), Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka), Chris Gayle (West Indies)
ICC Spirit of Cricket Award of the Decade
Nominees: Virat Kohli (India), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Anya Shrubsole (England), Misbah-ul-Haq (Pakistan), Brendon McCullum (New Zealand), Katherine Brunt (England), Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka), Daniel Vettori (New Zealand), MS Dhoni (India)
The winners will be decided on the basis of the votes the nominees receive from the fans around the world. The ICC opened up the voting for the fans on Wednesday and it will remain open till 16 December.
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