ICC Men's ODI Cricketer Of The Year: VIrat Kohli Beats Shami, Gill & Mitchell To Win The Award For Fourth Time In Career

Star India batter Virat Kohli was on Thursday (January 25) named the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year as ICC revealed the entire list of individual winners in iCC Awards 2023.

Kohli pipped compatriots Shubman Gill and Mohammed Shami as well as New Zealand all rounder Daryl Mitchell to win the award for the foruth time in his career. The 35-year-old had earlier been named the ODI Player of the Year in 2012, 2017 and 2018.

The veteran Indian batter scored 1377 runs, including 6 centuries and 8 fifties in 24 innings at an average of 72.47 in the terrific 2023 that only saw him miss out on winning the ICC ODI World Cup final.

The Indian batter had a superb year with the bat, culminating in a record tally of runs at the home World Cup, where his contributions played a major part in India's run to the final.

Kohli built on his comeback in 2022 with a spectacular 2023, where he found peak form in ODIs, and capped it off with a Player of the Tournament performance at the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023.

The 35-year-old smashed at least a half-century in nine of his 11 innings at the World Cup, where he finished with 765 runs, the most ever scored by an individual batter at a men's Cricket World Cup, going past the previous record set by Sachin Tendulkar in 2003.

Kohli finished the tournament with an average of 95.62 and a strike rate of 90.31, with three centuries including one in the semi-final against New Zealand that saw him break another record held by Tendulkar of most centuries in ODI cricket with a 50th hundred.

The ICC started the awards week by revealing the teams of the year in men and women's category followed by individual awards starting with T20I Player of the Year and Associate Player of the Year on Wednesday (January 24).

On Thursday (January 25), ICC revealed the Men's Test & ODI Cricketer, Men's Cricketer of the Year, Women's Cricketer of the Year, and the Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year.

While Australia opener Usman Khawaja was named the Test cricketer of the year, his compatriot and skipper Pat Cummins bagged the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy after leading his country to two ICC titles - WTC and ODI World Cup.

In the women's category, England all-rounder Nat Sciver-Brunt bagged the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for the second year in the running, while Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu was named the Women's ODI player of the year.