New Delhi, April 5 (IANS): India skipper Virat Kohli was on Wednesday named the ‘Leading Cricketer in the World’ for 2016 by this year’s edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, which is published this week.
The 28-year-old Indian amassed 1,215 Test runs at a healthy average of 75.93 while producing 739 runs at 92.37 in One-day Internationals (ODI) besides scoring 641 runs at 106.83 in T20 Internationals.
Under his watch, India completed a clean sweep of trophies in the Test, ODI and T20 series against England in 2016-17, with his 235 against England in the fourth Test at Mumbai confirming him, in Wisden editor Lawrence Booth’s words, as “the spiritual successor to Sachin Tendulkar”.
“Virat Kohli, who features on the cover of the 2017 edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, is also the Leading Cricketer in the World for 2016, an accolade put in place in 2003 when Ricky Ponting became the first honouree,” Wisden announced.
Kohli had earlier won the prestigious ‘Polly Umrigar award’ presented to the ‘International Cricketer of the Year’ at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Annual Awards.
Kohli is the third Indian to win an award that has been running since 2003, and which covers all formats of the international game in the preceding calendar year. Virender Sehwag won it twice, in 2008 and 2009, and Tendulkar once, in 2010.
Besides the Indian, two Pakistan cricketers -- Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan -- have been named in the list of the five ‘Cricketers of the Year’ for the first time since 1997. The other three in the list are Ben Duckett, Toby Roland-Jones and Chris Woakes.
Australia’s Ellyse Perry was named the leading woman cricketer in the world.
