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Ashwin world’s best player with ball & bat
The legend of Ravichandran Ashwin took a major career push at the ICC Annual Awards that were announced here on Thursday.
Dubai: The legend of Ravichandran Ashwin took a major career push at the ICC Annual Awards that were announced here on Thursday.
It was a double Dhamaka for India’s biggest match-winner and an honour that is bound to hold him in good stead in the coming season.
Ashwin became only the third Indian player ever to win the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy after being named the ICC Cricketer of the Year besides the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year.
Rahul Dravid (2004) and Sachin Tendulkar (2010) are the only other Indian recipients of the coveted trophy.
Ashwin was also adjudged the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year, which has made him only the second India player after Dravid (2004) to bag the two coveted prizes in the same year.
During the voting period, which ran from September 14, 2015 to September 20, 2016, the 30-year-old off-spinner from Chennai played eight Tests in which he took 48 wickets and scored 336 runs. Ashwin also claimed 27 wickets in 19 T20s.
Ashwin had finished 2015 as the number-one ranked Test bowler in the world, a position he twice reclaimed in 2016.
Reacting to the news, a delighted Ashwin said: "It's an absolute pleasure to be awarded with this great honour.
It feels great to follow the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid in being named as the ICC Cricketer of the Year. To also win the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year makes it even better.
"I'd like to dedicate this award to my family. A young (Test) captain (Virat Kohli) has taken over, we fell on the right track, and we now have a new bunch of boys," he said.
ICC Chief Executive David Richardson congratulated Ashwin on his fabulous season.
"It has been a memorable period for Ashwin, whose consistent all-round and match winning performances have been reflected in the MRF player rankings.
He is justifiably now being counted among the best spinners of his generation," Richardson said.
Besides, West Indies' Carlos Brathwaite won the ICC T20I Performance of the Year award for his match-winning 34 not out off 10 balls in the ICC World Twenty20 India 2016 final against England in Kolkata.
Bangladesh fast bowling sensation Mustafizur Rahman was named ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year award while Afghanistan's flamboyant wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Shahzad also won the ICC Associate and Affiliate Cricketer of the Year.
