Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma among nominees for ICC Player of the Decade

Virat Kohli is currently rated as the world’s best batsman across formats, as he is presently the number one batsman in the ODIs. Meanwhile, MS Dhoni has mostly contributed to limited-overs, since his Test retirement, while Rohit Sharma has been doing across formats.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has come up with a new sort of awards, which is to honour the best players of the last decade. The award has been termed as Player of the Decade.

The nomination list consists of numerous top cricketing talents from across the globe, including some notable ones. From India, four players have made it to the list: Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin.

Besides the above-said Indians, other top players happen to be Joe Root (England), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Steve Smith (Australia), AB de Villiers (South Africa), and Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka). The winners of the same would be decided by the number of votes a player receives.

Kohli, Dhoni and Rohit have been nominated for the ODI Player of the Decade category. While Kohli is also in the list of Test Player of the Decade, he, alongside Rohit, battles in T20I Player of the Decade. Meanwhile, Kohli and Dhoni are also placed in the list of Spirit of Cricket Award of the Decade.

Kohli has been terrific since the past decade, hitting 70 international centuries, besides averaging above 50 across formats. He has scored more than 7,000 Test runs, besides scoring over 11,000 and 2,600 in ODIs and T20Is, in the past decade. He is also the third leading run-scorer (21,444) in the all-time list, behind Ricky Ponting (27,483) and Sachin Tendulkar (34,357).

Among women, India’s Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami hit the list for ODI Player of the Decade. Meanwhile, Mithali is also among the nominees for Player of the Decade.

Below is the complete list of nominees:
Men’s player of the decade: Virat Kohli (India), Ravichandran Ashwin (India), Joe Root (England), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Steve Smith (Australia), AB de Villiers (South Africa) and Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka).
Women’s ODI Player of the Decade: Meg Lanning (Australia), Ellyse Perry (Australia), Mithali Raj (India), Suzie Bates (New Zealand), Stafanie Taylor (West Indies) and Jhulan Goswami (India).
Women’s Player of the Decade: Ellyse Perry (Australia), Meg Lanning (Australia), Suzie Bates (New Zealand), Stafanie Taylor (West Indies), Mithali Raj (India) and Sarah Taylor (England).
Men’s ODI Player of the Decade: Virat Kohli (India), Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka), Mitchell Starc (Australia), AB de Villiers, Rohit Sharma (India), MS Dhoni (India) and Kumara Sangakkara (Sri Lanka).
Men’s Test Player of the Decade: Virat Kohli (India), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Smith, James Anderson (England), Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka) and Yasir Shah (Pakistan).
Men’s T20I Player of the Decade: Rashid Khan (Afghanistan), Virat Kohli (India), Imran Tahir (South Africa), Aaron Finch (Australia), Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka), Chris Gayle (West Indies) and Rohit Sharma (India).
ICC Spirit of Cricket Award of the Decade: Virat Kohli (India), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Brendon McCullum (New Zealand), Misbah-ul-Haq (Pakistan), MS Dhoni (India), Anya Shrubsole (England), Katherine Brunt (England), Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka) and Daniel Vettori (New Zealand).