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A Playing XI Comprising Winners Of ICC Men’s Cricketer Of The Year Award

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Rahul Dravid and Kumar Sangakkara Award
Photo Source: Twitter

ICC Men’s Cricketer Of The Year is one of the most prestigious awards in the game of cricket. While a separate award is given for each format, ICC Men’s Cricketer Of The Year is presented to that player who has displayed an all-round performance in that particular year.

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To get this honour, a cricketer must be remarkably consistent in one cricketing season. For any player to do that is a tough task and hence, winning this trophy takes a lot of determination. In this article, we look at an XI comprising winners of this honour.

Openers who are ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year Award winners: Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid

Sachin Tendulkar is the only regular opener to have won this award. The ‘Master Blaster’ won it in 2010 when he was in great form before the World Cup. Partnering Sachin will be Rahul Dravid, who was the first recipient of this award. It was in 2004 that the ‘Wall’ won the prize. At that time, across formats, the right-hander was in terrific form. Especially in Tests, Rahul was striking double-centuries at will, something that helped him win this award.

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Middle-Order: Ricky Ponting (C), Kumar Sangakkara (WK), Virat Kohli and Michael Clarke

It will be a blockbuster batting line-up for this XI. While Ricky Ponting bats at his favourite No.3 position, he will be followed by Kumar Sangakkara, Virat Kohli and Michael Clarke, all of whom have been terrific achievers for their country.

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Both Ricky Ponting and Virat Kohli won this award twice in successive years. While Ricky won it in 2006 and 2007, Virat was the recipient in 2017 and 2018. Sanga won the prize in 2012 and it was Clarke’s turn to collect it a year later in 2013. The Sri Lankan player will be the obvious choice to don the wicket-keeping gloves for this XI.

All-Rounders who are ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year Award winners: Jacques Kallis, Ben Stokes and Andrew Flintoff

There have been three all-rounders who won this award. All these three will feature in this XI. If this XI really plays a game, these three will have to contribute a lot to the bowling department as well.

While Kallis and Flintoff won it together in 2005, Ben Stokes won the prize in 2019. In 2019, Stokes helped England win its first-ever 50-over World Cup and he then followed it up with a spectacular performance which helped England win an unlikely Ashes game.

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Bowlers: Ravichandran Ashwin and Mitchell Johnson

Ashwin and Virat Kohli
Photo: Ravichandran Ashwin/Instagram

Very few bowlers have won this honour. Considering the fitness demand for this department of the game, it is hard to remain consistent throughout the year. However, Ravichandran Ashwin and Mitchell Johnson have been proud recipients of this prize. While Ashwin won it in 2016, the Aussie was the winner in 2014. Ashwin was in top form, especially in Test cricket at that time. On the other hand, at his peak, Johnson used to terrorize batsmen with his bouncers and pace. Both were deserving winners of the award.