Virat Kohli elected as the captain of the year at the Annual ESPN Cricinfo Awards

Team India skipper across all three formats, Virat Kohli who led his team to 19 unbeaten Tests in the lead-up to the Test series against Australia was named as the ‘Captain of the Year’ at the 10th Annual ESPN Cricinfo Awards. During the last year, India remained unbeaten in the longest format of the game, winning 9 out of 12 Tests. Englishman Ben Stokes who recently bagged a whopping contract in the IPL Auction won the Test Batting Performance of the Year for his sensation double century against South Africa earlier in 2016.

Stuart Broad bagged the Test Bowling performance of the year for his brilliant spell of 6/17 in the final Test against South Africa. While Quinton de Kock bagged the ODI Batting Performance of the year for his 178 against the mighty Aussies, Sunil Narine won the ODI Bowling performance of the year for his exceptional spell of 6/27 against South Africa during a tri-nation series.

Carlos Brathwaite who recently became the Caribbean captain in the shortest format of the game bagged the T20 Performance of the year for his 10 balls 34 not out against England in the final of the ICC World Twenty20 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. He smashed four consecutive sixes in the last four balls of the match of Ben Stokes to give West Indies their 2nd World Twenty20 title.

Bangladesh left-arm seamer and cutter specialist Mustafizur Rahman won the T20 Bowling Performance of the Year for his five-wicket haul against New Zealand in a World T20 match in India. Winners were selected by a jury including former cricketing greats, ESPN Cricinfo’s editors, writers and correspondents. The group consisted of former Aussie captain Ian Chappell, former Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene, Ramiz Raja, Isa Guha, Courtney Walsh, Mark Butcher, Sambit Bal and last but not the least former umpire Simon Taufel.

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Young Bangladeshi teenage spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraj won the Debutant of the Year Award for his 19 wickets in the 2 match Test series against England which also guided Bangladesh to their greatest ever Test win till date.

“The ESPNcricinfo Awards are about meaning and context, so we are chuffed a ten-ball innings sits beside a score of 258 in the list of winners. There is delight and irony in the fact that these two performances belong to Carlos Brathwaite and Ben Stokes, whose names will be forever entwined for those dramatic four balls in the World T20 final. The tenth year has seen some inspirational talent come to the fore, we are pleased to introduce winners from women and Associates cricket this year,” Editor-in-chief of ESPN Cricinfo Sambit Bal said.