The ICC ODI Cricketer Of The Year award is one of the most pretigious individual accolades that a player can earn in his career.
This year’s nominees reportedly include the likes of Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Matthew Breetzke, Shai Hope, Daryl Mitchell, Matt Henry, Adil Rashid, Sikandar Raza, Mitchell Santner, and Jayden Seales.
Bar the two consecutive ducks in Australia, Kohli had a great run in the format this year, from a ton against Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy, winning the tournament itself, and then back-to-back tons against South Africa to end the year, he may just be one of the favorites for the award.
While this year’s winner remains to be seen, let’s take a look at who all were the ICC ODI Cricketer Of The Year award winners in the last five years.
ICC ODI Cricketer Of The Year: Last 5 Winners
1) Rohit Sharma – 2019
India’s Rohit Sharma was awarded the ICC ODI Cricketer Of The Year award in 2019. He was one of the best opening batsmen in that year’s ICC World Cup, having scored 5 centuries, but was eliminated in the Semi-Final stage.
Nevertheless, Rohit finished the tournament as the highest scorer with 648 runs.
2) Babar Azam – 2021
Pakistan’s Babar Azam won the accolade in 2021. He amassed 405 runs from six ODI appearances, averaging an impressive 67.50, with two hundreds highlighting his tally.
3) Babar Azam – 2022
Babar Azam won the ICC ODI Cricketer Of The Year award the following year as well. In fact, he had an even better year, scoring 679 runs with an average of 84.87.
4) Virat Kohli – 2023
Virat Kohli equalled, and then surpassed Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most centuries in the 50-over format in 2023 during the ODI World Cup. He was the top scorer of the tournament with a whopping 765 runs with a 95.62 average.
5) Azmatullah Omarzai – 2024
Azmatullah Omarzai is the first ever winner of the ICC ODI Cricketer Of The Year award from Afghanistan. In that year, he was second-highest run-scorer as well as wicket-taker for his team.