Indian batting star Virat Kohli has been crowned as the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year 2023, making it the 4th time that he has won the accolade. The 35-year-old right-handed batter accumulated 1377 runs in 27 matches and capped it off with the Player of The Tournament award in the 2023 World Cup. In the process, he also became the 1st player to hold 10 ICC awards.
Kohli started the year in best possible fashion, hammering two centuries in the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka, aggregating 283 runs to win the Player of The Series award. The 35-year-old had a stellar IPL 2023 and carried his form into Asia Cup 2023, making 164 runs in 3 innings, headlined by an unbeaten 122 against Pakistan in Colombo.
The match saw Kohli stitch an unbroken 233-run partnership with KL Rahul as India piled on 356-2 in 50 overs to trounce their arch-rivals by 228 runs.
Virat Kohli's heroics in vain in a stellar 2023 World Cup campaign:
The former Indian captain could not have asked for a better start to his 2023 World Cup campaign as he crafted a match-winning knock of 85 against Australia in Chennai when the hosts were 2-3, chasing 200. Kohli smashed his first hundred of the tournament against Bangladesh and levelled Sachin Tendulkar's record tally of 50 tons in Kolkata against South Africa.
The landmark 51st ODI ton came against New Zealand in the semi-final in Mumbai. The right-hander top-scored with 54 in the final, but his record World Cup-campaign went in vain as Australia emerged on top in the final. The 765-run tally in the tournament meant Kohli broke Sachin Tendulkar's record of most runs in a single World Cup edition.
