It's Unanimous! Virat Kohli Is The World's Best

Such was his domination in 2018 that all 36 venerable voters in the ICC committee were unanimous in picking him for the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year – an unprecedented act.

Outlook Web Bureau

Updated on: 22 January 2019 4:53 pm

The task of defining the best is one onerous task, fraught with danger of overindulgence and bias. But cricket fans who have followed the game in the last few years will feel that their job, of finding the best as often fans do, has been made easy by the presence of someone called Virat Kohli.

Such was his domination in 2018 that all 36 venerable voters were unanimous in picking him for the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year – an unprecedented act. Then there were other two big awards, those of the ICC Men's Test Player of the Year and the ICC ODI Player of the Year. He is the first player to win all three top three awards in a single year.

"Not only is Kohli the first player to win these three major ICC awards together but he has also been named the captain of the ICC Test and ODI teams of the year for a fabulous run in international cricket," the ICC said in a statement.

What he has achieved in the process is helping India shed the tag of poor travellers. During the last calendar year, India have travelled to South Africa, England and Australia, and under Kohli's leadership, they have played some incredible matches, establishing a new identity.

He became the first Asian captain to register Test wins in Australia, England and South Africa in the same calendar year. And rightly, he has been named the captain of both Test and ODI teams of the year.

Continuing his superb form, the right-hander scored 2735 runs across all formats in 2018 with help of 11 centuries. He ended the year as the number one ranked batsman in both Test and ODI cricket.

Then there were numbers and stats to back his claim to the crown as the world's best.

In a record-breaking year, Virat Kohli helped India register their first-ever Test and ODI series wins in Australia – the so-called 'last frontier'. During the course of the year, he scored 1322 runs from 13 Tests, 1202 from 14 ODIs and 211 from T20Is, and also took time out to be with his family.

Kohli's batting performance in the last year only confirmed his stature as the world's leading player. In the last decade, he has scored a whopping 18681 international runs at an average of 56.60. The second best is South Africa's Hashim Amla with 14825 runs, that's a difference of 3856.

In the last ten years, he has hit 63 international hundreds, again the next best is Amla (47). He also has the most fifties (84), 10 more than Englishman Joe Root (74).