Virat Kohli - the Ultimate King of 2018
2018 has been the year of Virat Kohli. The Indian swashbuckler has established himself as one of the all-time greats in this year.
The right-handed batsman was hands and shoulders above the rest as far as scoring runs was concerned. He began this year by scoring a sensational ton against South Africa. Kohli played a crucial role in India's scintillating win in Johannesburg Test.
The England tour was termed as the final frontier to him as he failed terribly on the previous occasions. But King Kohli conquered England in style by aggregating 593 runs, including two centuries, from 5 games. On top of it, Kohli won the battle between him and James Anderson as the legendary England pacer couldn't succeed in dismissing the Indian star.
Later in December, Kohli went on scoring a defiant ton against Australia in the second Test match played at a testing pitch at the new Optus stadium.
Kohli's knock of 123 runs was hailed as one of his best knocks ever. With one more Test match to go in the year 2018, who knows Kohli scores another fine knock in this year.
Kohli's numbers in 2018:
Tests - 12 matches - 1240 runs - 56.36 avg - 5 tons - 4 fifties.
ODIs - 14 matches - 1202 runs - 133.55 avg - 6 tons - 3 fifties
T20Is - 10 matches - 211 runs - 121.96 strike rate - 1 fifty.
Prithvi Shaw - A new star on the block
The teenage prodigy started the year on a bang as he guided the Under 19 Indian side to the ICC U-19 World Cup glory.
The right-handed opener from Mumbai led from the front as coach Rahul Dravid-led team defeated Australia in the final as India won the ICC U-19 World Cup in the Australian continent.
The youngster was also rewarded for his brilliant run in the domestic circuit as he debuted for India in Tests against West Indies in Rajkot. Shaw joined the elite club by slamming a century on his debut Test.
The youngster followed it up with a half-century against the Windies in the next game. To India head coach Ravi Shastri, the youngster showed glimpses of Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, and Brian Lara with his batting.
In a matter of two Tests, the 18-year-old talented opener was deemed India's first-choice opener on Australia tour but an ankle injury has ruled the youngster out of the series.
Kane Williamson - proves his mettle in IPL, Tests
Before the start of the IPL, many felt that Kane Williamson wouldn't have secured a regular spot in the Sunrisers Hyderabad side had David Warner not faced a one-year suspension for his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. But Williamson silenced his critics by leading his IPL side from the front and guiding the Orange Army all the way to the finals of IPL 2018.
Sunrisers Hyderabad, however, failed to stop the CSK juggernaut in the final to eventually end up as the runners-up.
However, with 735 runs from 17 games, Williamson was the Orange Cap holder in the IPL 2018. Williamson also slammed eight half-centuries in the season.
The right-handed batsman from New Zealand played captain's knock against Pakistan in the Test series held in UAE as his team scripted history by winning the series on Asian soil after a gap of 42 years.
Williamson slammed two match-winning centuries as New Zealand defeated Pakistan 2-1 in the three Tests series.
With his knocks under testing conditions in UAE, Williamson also established himself as a modern-day legend by proving that he's one of the few batsmen in the world who can play on any kind of surface.
Williamson averages a whopping 66.77 in Tests in 2018 as against his career average of 51.91. The right-handed batsman has also scored at an average of 46.80 in the 11 ODIs he's played this year.
Joe Root - a milestone year for Captain Root
Under Joe Root's captaincy this year, England reached at the second position in the ICC Test rankings with series wins against India and Sri Lanka.
After defeating India 3-1 at home, England ended up clean sweeping the Test series against Sri Lanka in the latter's backyard. Root slammed a brilliant century against India in at Oval and also scored a memorable Test century in Pallekele as both of them resulted in a winning cause.
With these series wins, Root has catapulted his team to the second position in the ICC Test Rankings, now only behind India. Root's captaincy prowess came to fore against India and later against Sri Lanka as he made crucial bowling changes and field placements.
Root's consecutive tons against India in second and third ODIs secured the series for his team as well. Overall, this was a memorable year for Root as his opponents will now start taking him seriously as a captain too.
Rohit Sharma - the best limited-overs' opener
Virat Kohli's deputy in the limited-overs format has been in ominous touch this year. He might not have been as good in Tests but when it comes to limited-overs format, he matches Kohli in every bit, in fact on his day he's head and shoulders above the rest in the business.
Ranked No. 2 in the ICC ODI rankings, Rohit has had a phenomenal 2018. The big-hitting opening batsman from Mumbai in only the second batsman in the year to have crossed 1000-run mark (1050 from 19 ODIs) in the 50-over format after his captain.
Rohit has slammed 5 centuries and 3 fifties in the ODIs and averaged a whopping 73.57. He's now the only batsman in the history of ODI cricket to have posted a score of 150+ on more than 7 occasions.
The right-hander was equally dangerous in the shortest format of the game i.e. T20Is this year. Rohit smashed two centuries in 2018 and he now is the only batsman to have slammed four centuries in this format in the international cricket.
To further explain how dangerous Rohit was in the T20Is this year he missed out on a T20I century by just 3 runs on one occasion and was run out for 89 on the other.
MS Dhoni - IPL's Eternal Champion returns
After a wait of more than a thousand days, MS Dhoni finally got a chance to lead Chennai Super Kings when they played the IPL opener against the defending champions Mumbai Indians.
The way CSK snatched the win from the jaws of defeat in their first two games of the season everyone was convinced that this 'Team of Daddys' (as most of their players were above the age of 30) is going to be a force to reckon with as Dhoni their leader.
Dhoni also led his team from the front and rewound the clocks way back to 2008 when he was in his power-hitting mode. Dhoni scored 455 runs in the tournament at a strike rate of 150.66.
Vintage Dhoni's finishing skills were once again on display as two-time IPL Champions CSK went on lifting the IPL crown for the record-levelling third time.
The 'Thala' was once again hailed for his astute captaincy skills and strokeplay in the cash-rich league as CSK were clearly the best team of IPL 2018.