Current Indian skipper Virat Kohli, who has featured in the all three teams of the decade – ODIs, T20Is and Tests – was on Monday unanimously voted as the best ODI player and the best cricketer of the Decade in an online poll conducted by the international Cricket Council (ICC)
In the 10-year period since 2011, Virat has scored a monumental 10,561 runs in the ODI format at an average of 61.83. He has smashed 39 centuries and 48 fifties in the same period and has grabbed on to 112 catches.
He is the only player to score 10,000-plus runs in the ODI cricket during the awards period.
“Stats are just byproducts of what you want to do on the field. ODI cricket is something that I took to very early, I came into the ODI team first then I made my Test debut two years later,”Virat said.
Besides Virat, former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award of the decade.
The global cricket body said that the former Indian captain was unanimously chosen by fans for his gesture of calling back England batsman Ian Bell after a bizarre run out in the Nottingham Test in 2011.
Australia batsman Steve Smith was named as the ICC Test player of the decade while Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan was adjudged ICC Men’s T20 player of the Decade. Australia cricketer Ellyse Perry, on the other hand, was named ICC Women’s Player of the Decade, ODI Player of the Decade and T20 Player of the Decade.
Meanwhile, the ICC had on Sunday announced Test, ODI and T20I teams of the decade. While Virat Kohli was announced as the captain of the Test team, MS Dhoni was named the skipper of both ODI and T20I teams of the decade.
