Published: Dec 22, 2016, 04:45 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 23, 2016, 07:38 PM (IST)
The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday announced the Test, One-Day International (ODI) teams of the year, Test and ODI player of the year among many other awards. But one thing that caught everyone’s eye is the fact that India skipper Virat Kohli was not in the Test team. He was however named as the skipper of the ODI side. Kohli has had a phenomenal 2016. He scored 1,215 runs in 12 Tests at 75.93, which include four centuries (including 2 double hundreds) and a couple of fifties along with a highest score of 235. He finished fourth in the list behind the English trio of Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Alastair Cook.
This record certainly warrants a place in the ICC Test team doesn’t it? But according to ICC, the sides were picked based on the players’ records between September 14, 2015 to September 20, 2016. That is the usual case and they have followed this pattern for long. However, Kohli in this time scored 451 runs in 8 Tests at 45.10, which include four Tests against South Africa at home and four against the West Indies at the Caribbean. Kohli however had an excellent end to the series against New Zealand and owned England at home.
In the recently-concluded series against England, Kohli scored 655 runs at a staggering 109.16, which included two centuries and 2 fifties, with his highest score being 235. Kohli also finished the year as the second ranked Test batsman behind Australia skipper Steven Smith. Kohli is the ranked No. 2 batsman in the world in ODIs and rules the charts in T20Is.
ICC Test team for 2016: David Warner (Australia), Alastair Cook (c) (England), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Joe Root (England), Adam Voges (Australia), Jonny Bairstow (wk, England), Ben Stokes (England), Ravichandran Ashwin (India), Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka), Mitchell Starc (Australia), Dale Steyn (South Africa), Steven Smith (Australia, 12th man)
