India skipper Virat Kohli was on Tuesday named captain of both the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Test and ODI Teams of the Year following his remarkable show in 2018 both as batsman and skipper.
According to an ICC statement, pacer Jasprit Bumrah is the other Indian to make it to both the sides while stumper Rishabh Pant is the third Indian to find a place in the Test Team of the Year.
Besides Kohli and Bumrah, opener Rohit Sharma and chinaman Kuldeep Yadav are the other Indians to be named in the ICC ODI Team of the Year.
The awards, which honour performances during a calendar year, saw Kohli walk into both sides which were selected by the ICC Voting Academy comprising former players, members of the media and broadcasters.
Kohli’s 1,322 runs at an average of 55.08 with five centuries in 13 Tests and 1,202 runs at an astounding average of 133.55 with six hundreds in 14 ODIs saw him selected to both sides by every voting member of the Academy with the majority of them also opting to name him at the helm of each.
Kohli also ended 2018 as the top-ranked Test and ODI batsman in the MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings while his side finished the year as the top-ranked side in Tests and number two behind England in ODIs.
Reacting to the news, an elated Kohli said: “It has been an amazing year. I was able to play in a manner that I would not have imagined. If the intention is right and you keep working hard, the results are there in front of your own eyes.
“The intent has always been to help your team at any cost, that is when these performances come by and you are pushing yourself to the limit, which you otherwise will not be able to. That is something I experienced in 2018 a lot,” he added.
Meanwhile, besides the three Indians — Kohli, Bumrah and Pant — New Zealand also has three players in the Test squad — captain Kane Williamson, Henry Nicholls and opener Tom Latham.
Five other nations make up the remainder of the Test team — Dimuth Karunaratne (Sri Lanka), Jason Holder (Windies), top-ranked Kagiso Rabada (South Africa), Nathan Lyon (Australia) and Mohammad Abbas (Pakistan).
Similarly in the ODI team, besides the four Indians, England also have four players — Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes.
Bangladesh’s Mustafizur Rahman, top-ranked Rashid Khan (Afghanistan) and Ross Taylor (New Zealand) complete the ICC ODI XI.