Kohli creates history at ICC awards

India's Virat Kohli has swept the pool at the annual International Cricket Council awards, winning back-to-back player of the year awards.

In addition to the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy as the player of the year, Kohli was named both the Test and ODI player of the year, the first time any player has won all three of the major individual awards.

Kohli was also named captain of both the Test and ODI teams.

The India batting maestro joins Australia greats Ricky Ponting and Mitchell Johnson as the only multiple winners of the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy.

Kohli has emulated Ponting in winning back-to-back awards after the former Australia skipper was the first to achieve the feat in 2006 and 2007.

Johnson won his awards in 2009 after a breakout start to his career that saw him dominate South Africa home and away, and again in 2014 after he led Australia back to the World No.1 Test ranking following an Ashes whitewash and series win on South Africa soil.

Kohli's latest accolade comes after former Australia captain Michael Clarke anointed him "the greatest batsman to have ever played one-day cricket" during a commentary stint on Indian television.

"You have to respect Virat's passion to win games for his country. Yes, he has aggression but no one can question his commitment, how much he has achieved. He is the greatest in ODIs," Clarke said.

Kohli scored 1345 runs at 53.80 in 14 Tests since the start of 2018, and 1355 runs – including seven centuries – in 17 ODIs at a scarcely believable average of 112.91 in the same timeframe.

Aaron Finch, who is in the midst of an international form slump, received a boost when his innings of 172 against Zimbabwe last July was named the T20 international performance of the year.

Finch scored just 26 runs in three innings as Australia's ODI captain during their 2-1 series defeat to India this month.

"It was obviously a disappointing series. Nowhere near as many runs as I would have liked or as big an impact with the bat," Finch said.

"We've seen some real improvement in the way we've batted in the last three ODIs in particular. I was probably the weak link in that which is disappointing for me as the captain of the side."

"His current form is a far cry from the purple patch he found himself in last July when he crunched 16 fours and 10 sixes in a world-record breaking knock. His 172 came from just 76 balls, to beat the previous high score in the format of 156, a record that also belonged to Finch.

"It was one of those days, a few things went my way and I hit a few in the middle which was nice," Finch said at the time.

Spinner Nathan Lyon was the only Australian to make the Test team of the year, while no Australian featured in the ODI team of the year.

Scotland batsman Calum MacLeod was named the Associate Member player of the year after hitting two centuries and averaging 59.33 in 11 ODIs in 2018.

ICC Test Team of the Year

Tom Latham, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kane Williamson, Virat Kohli (c), Henry Nicholls, Rishabh Pant (wk), Jason Holder, Kagiso Rabada, Nathan Lyon, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Abbas

ICC ODI Team of the Year

Rohit Sharma, Jonny Bairstow, Virat Kohli (c), Joe Root, Ross Taylor, Jos Buttler (wk), Ben Stokes, Mustaifizur Rahman, Rashid Khan, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah.