Indian star batter Virat Kohli became the only player to be named the Player of the Tournament in three ICC tournaments after the ICC World Cup 2023 ended with Australia beating India at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, on Sunday.
Kohli, 35, was writing his own script in the World Cup this year as the right-handed batter performed in every match he played and had the world on its feet to cheer for him throughout the tournament.
The 35-year-old amassed 765 runs, the most in a single World Cup edition, in 11 matches with a staggering 95.62 average and 90.31 strike rate and his high score remained 117 against New Zealand which came in the mega event’s semi-final.
Kohli was named the Player of the Tournament in the 2014 T20 World Cup where he scored 319 runs in six innings at 106.33 average. Just two years after conquering the shorter-format tournament, Kohli, once again, bagged the best player award in the 2016 T20 World Cup by scoring 273 runs in five innings with an astounding average of 136.50.
However, all three times Kohli was named the Player of the Tournament, India couldn’t win the title as in 2014, they lost the final against Sri Lanka. In 2016. they lost to West Indies in the semi-final.
Kohli broke several records in the World Cup 2023. He scored his record 50th ODI century and surpassed his idol and one of the finest cricketers of all time, Sachin Tendulkar.
He also overtook the legendary Australian batter Ricky Ponting and became the second-highest run-scorer in the ODI World Cup history.
Kohli scored 54 runs during India vs Australia final and took his ODI World Cup run tally to 1795 in 37 matches at an impressive average of 59.83. He bagged five centuries and 12 fifties in the process with the highest score being 117 against New Zealand in this year’s mega event.
Ponting amassed a total of 1,743 in 46 matches with an average of 45.86 which included five hundreds and six fifites. Meanwhile, Sachin Tendulkar remained the top scorer in ODI World Cup history as The Little Master struck a whopping 2,278 runs in 45 matches at an astounding 56.95 average.
