ICC Awards 2017: Virat Kohli, Steven Smith bag top honors

The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced its annual ICC awards on Thursday, 18 January 2018. The awards saw modern day greats Virat Kohli and Steven Smith bag the top honours.

The ICC recognizes and felicitates top performances at the annual event. The voting period for the 2017 edition was from 21 September 2016 to 31 December 2017. An ICC voting academy chose the winner. ICC’s Head of internal audit monitored the voting process.

An unmatched cricketing season meant that India?s Virat Kohli led the list of ICC awards. Kohli was named the ICC Men?s Cricketer of the year and ICC Men’s ODI player of the year. Winning the former award meant that Kohli regained the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy. He had won the same for the first time in 2012.

In the qualification period, Kohli had played some top notch cricket. He amassed 2,203 Test runs at an average of 77.80. Virat also scored 1,818 ODI runs at an average of 82.63 and 299 T20I runs at a strike-rate of 153.

Read:?Kohli Hit a Record 10 Centuries in a Single Year

The flamboyant batsman was named the captain of both the ICC ODI team of the year and the ICC Test team of the year. Under Kohli?s leadership India had a terrific cricketing season. India ranked among the top three teams in the world across all formats consistently.

Virat?s Australian counterpart Steven Smith was not too far behind. Smith had scored 1,875 runs in 16 matches at an average of 78.12. This includes some of his performances in the Ashes. These had forced the critics to compare him with the great Don Bradman. Thus, Smith won the ICC Test player of the year.

Read :?Steve Smith Vs Virat Kohli: Who Dominates The Run Machine In 2017

Pakistan’s Hasan Ali was named as the emerging player of the year. Ali was at the top of ICC ODI rankings when his career was had spanned a mere 426 days. The pacer is the fastest Pakistani to 50 ODI wickets.

Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan was named the Associate player of the year and was also awarded a spot in the ODI team of the year. Khan accounted for 60 scalps for Afghanistan a record for an associate player.

T20I performance of the year for 2017 was Yuzvendra Chahal’s 6/25 against England.

The ICC had announced Women’s awards in December 2017 and Ellyse Perry had bagged the player of the year.

Here is the complete list of winners of ICC Awards 2017:

1. Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for Cricketer of the Year ? Virat Kohli

1. Test Cricketer of the Year ? Steve Smith

1. ODI Cricketer of the Year ? Virat Kohli

1. Associate Cricketer of the Year ? Rashid Khan

1. T20I Performance of the Year ? Yuzvendra Chahal (India): 6/25 versus England in Bengaluru.

1. Emerging Cricketer of the Year ? Hasan Ali (Pakistan)

1. Spirit of Cricket Award ? Anya Shrubsole (England women?s team)

1. Umpire of the Year (David Shepherd Trophy) ? Marais Erasmus

1. Fans? Moment of the Year ? Pakistan winning the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 beating India in England.

1. ICC Test Team of the Year:

   Dean Elgar, David Warner, Virat Kohli (captain), Steve Smith, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ben Stokes, Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Mitchell Starc, Kagiso Rabada, James Anderson.

2. ICC ODI Team of the Year:

   Virat Kohli (captain), David Warner, Rohit Sharma, Babar Azam, AB de Villiers, Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), Ben Stokes, Trent Boult, Hasan Ali, Rashid Khan, Jasprit Bumrah.

ICC Awards 2017 ? Women?s Winners

1. Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award for Cricketer of the Year ? Ellyse Perry (Australia)

1. ODI Player of the Year ? Amy Satterthwhite (New Zealand)

1. T20I Player of the Year ? Beth Mooney (Australia)

1. Emerging Player of the Year ? Beth Mooney

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