Virat Kohli celebrates for Team India. (Courtesy: ICC)
Veteran Indian batter Virat Kohli was crowned the ICC Men”s ODI Cricketer of the Year 2023 for his exceptional year in the 50-over format. 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, ICC said in a release.
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.
India’s No.3 smashed at least a half-century in nine of his 11 innings at the World Cup, finishing with a mind-blowing 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. He completed a record tally of 50 ODI hundreds with his knock in the semi-final, making him the leading century-hitter in the format’s history.
While he ended the tournament with another half-century in the final, it didn’t lead India to a victory and the stunned silence that followed his dismissal in Ahmedabad in the final was a testimony to how big Kohli was to India’s chances at the title win. He finished the year with 1377 runs at an average of 72.47, recording six centuries and eight half-centuries in 24 innings.
