London: India captain Virat Kohli has been named Wisden Almanack’s ODI player of the 2010s, while England all-rounder Ben Stokes was declared the ‘Cricketer of the Year’ for a second successive time by the highly-rated annual publication.
The 32-year-old Kohli, who made his ODI debut in August 2008 against Sri Lanka, is among the finest batsmen of all time, and has amassed a staggering 12,169 runs from 254 ODIs.
“To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first One-Day International, five ODI cricketers of the decade have been named in the 2021 edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack,” the reference book, often described as Bible of Cricket, stated.
“One cricketer has been named for each of the decades between 1971 and 2021, with India captain Virat Kohli taking the award for the 2010s,” Wisden said on its website.
Kohli, who was part of the 2011 World Cup winning Indian team, made more than 11,000 runs in the 10-year stretch, averaging over 60 and scoring 42 centuries.
Apart from Kohli, Wisden also named legendary Sachin Tendulkar as the ODI Cricketer of the 1990s. The right-handed India opener, in 1998, made nine ODI hundreds, more than any other batsman in a single calendar year.
India’s World Cup winning former captain Kapil Dev too featured on the list when he was named as the ODI Cricketer for the 1980s.
Kapil led India to its first ODI World Cup win in 1983. He also claimed more wickets than any other in the decade and scored at the highest strike rate of any batsman with over 1000 runs.
Meanwhile, Stokes was declared the ‘Leading Cricketer in the World’ for the second year in a row.
“His haul of 641 Test runs at 58 in the calendar year was more than anyone else, while his 19 wickets cost just 18 apiece. He did it all against a backdrop of personal tragedy: his father, Ged, died in December at the age of 65,” Wisden editor Lawrence Booth said.
Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley, West Indian Jason Holder, Mohammed Rizwan and Darren Stevens were named Wisden Cricketers of the Year in the 2021 edition of Wisden Almanack.
Also, Australia’s Beth Mooney was awarded ‘Leading Women’s Cricketer in the World’ while West Indian all-rounder Kieron Pollard was named the Leading T20 Cricketer in the World.
PTI