Topping charts! Virat Kohli, Smriti Mandhana become first Indian duo to bag ICC top honours

For the very first time, it has been two Indian cricketers to top the Men's and Women's ICC awards. While Virat Kohli was named as the ICC Cricketer of the Year, ODI player of the year and Test player of the year, Mandhana had bagged the ICC Women's cricketer of the year and the ODI player of the year. This feat has never been achieved where two Indians have bagged the top awards in the men's and women's category together.

The 22-year-old Mandhana scored 669 runs at an average of 66.90 in 12 ODIs and 622 runs at a strike-rate of 130.67 in 25 T20Is during the voting period, which ran from January 1 to December 31, according to an ICC's statement.

Mandhana played a crucial role in India's semi-final appearance at the ICC Women's World T20 in the West Indies, scoring 178 runs in five matches at a strike-rate of 125.35.

She is currently ranked fourth in the MRF Tyres ICC Women's Players Rankings for ODI Batters and 10th in the MRF Tyres ICC Women's Players Rankings for T20I Batters.

Kohli became the first player in history to win the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year, the ICC Men’s Test Player of the Year and the ICC ODI Player of the Year awards following an extraordinary 2018.

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Not only is Kohli the first player to win these three major ICC awards together but he has also been named the captain of the ICC Test and ODI teams of the year for a fabulous run in international cricket. Kohli scored 1,322 runs at an average of 55.08 in 13 Tests with five hundreds during the calendar year while in 14 ODIs he amassed 1202 runs at an astonishing average of 133.55 with six centuries. He also scored 211 runs in 10 T20Is.

Kohli was the unanimous choice of the Voting Academy* for the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy with South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada coming in second to him for both this award and the ICC Test Player of the Year award. Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan was runner up to Kohli for the ICC ODI Player of the Year award.