ICC ODI Player 2023: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday announced the nominees for the ICC ODI Player 2023, a day after it announced the nominees for the T20I & Emerging Cricketer of the Year award in both Men and Women’s categories. Three Indians along with a Kiwi featured in the shortlisted candidates for the prestigious award.
Young Shubman Gill has been nominated alongside his compatriots Virat Kohli and Mohammad Shami, while a place has been sealed by New Zealand’s batting all-rounder Daryl Mitchell.
24-year-old right-handed batter Shubman Gill’s ODI career picked its pace in 2023, aggregating a whopping 1584 runs in 29 games along with 24 catches. In the tally of total runs scored in a calendar year, Gill is only behind the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly.
The batter also consolidated his place in the ODI team and stitched a few memorable partnerships with captain Rohit Sharma. His best show came against New Zealand in Hyderabad where he a double-ton and stormed into the elite club of only 11 players who have achieved this feat.
After an underwhelming show in 2022, Virat Kohli managed to resurrect his ODI career with some of his finest knocks in 2023. He capped off the year with the accolade of “Player of the Tournament” in the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023, where he piled up 765 runs in 11 innings. The Indian stalwart managed to score at least a half-century in nine of his 11 World Cup 2023 appearances.
The legend of the modern era, Virat also surpassed Sachin Tendulkar to become the leading batter in terms of number of centuries scored in the format.
Kohli finished the year with 1377 runs in 24 innings at an impressive average of 72.47, which included six centuries and eight half-centuries.
Talking about Mohammad Shami, who is the only bowler to feature in the nominations of the ICC ODI Player 2023, the pacer turned his fortunes midway through the year. While he had a pretty modest show in the first half of 2023, he became a sensation in the remainder of the year, especially during the World Cup.
Shami wasn’t India’s first-choice player in the World Cup 2023 and only got the opportunity after Hardik Pandya got injured. However, proving his worth, the pacer peaked in the very first game he played against New Zealand. Getting the opportunity midway through the tournament, Shami finished the World Cup as the highest wicket-taker.
He scalped a total of 24 wickets at a staggering average of 10.7. In 7 games he played during the World Cup, the Indian seamer managed to pick up three five-wicket hauls along with a four-wicket haul.
He capped off the year with an insane 43 wickets, 36 runs and three catches after featuring in just 19 matches.
Talking about the only overseas player to feature in the shortlists of the ICC ODI Player 2023, Daryl Mitchell wreaked havoc with his blade for New Zealand during the showpiece event after a modest first half of the year.
Mitchell found his groove with consecutive tons against Pakistan in April. The all-rounder once tasted his mojo then he never looked back. He finished the year with a magnificent 1204 runs, 12 wickets and 22 catches in 26 matches. He now features third in the list of most runs scored by a Kiwi in a calendar year.
Of those 1204, 552 runs came during the World Cup 2023 where he became New Zealand’s one of the highest run getters.
ICC ODI Player 2023 – Nominations
- Shubman Gill (India): 1584 Runs, 24 Catches in 29 ODI games.
- Mohammad Shami (India): 43 Wickets, 36 Runs, 3 Catches in 19 ODI games.
- Virat Kohli (India): 1377 Runs, 1 Wicket, 12 Catches in 27 ODI games.
- Daryl Mitchell (New Zealand): 1204 Runs, 12 Wickets, 22 Catches in 26 ODI games.
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For more details head to ICC’s official website.
Keywords Used: ICC ODI Player 2023, ICC ODI Player of the Year.