'For me, every game played for India is as important and as crucial' - Virat Kohli on being honoured with ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Decade

Indian skipper Virat Kohli has terrific numbers to his name across all the formats in the past decade. Thus, to celebrate his victories, the International Cricket Council (ICC) gave two individual honours to Kohli, Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade and the ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Decade.

Since his debut against Sri Lanka in 2008 in an ODI game, Virat Kohli has amassed a whopping 12,040 runs in 251 One Day International games along with 7,318 and 2,928 runs in 87 Tests and 85 T20 Internationals respectively. The standout feature of his limited-overs career is winning the Player of the Tournament in the 2014 and 2016 ICC T20 World Cup, along with playing an underrated role in India’s victory in the 2011 World Cup.

As the Indian skipper was honoured with two prestigious awards by ICC, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was involved in a candid interaction with Virat Kohli, where the cricketer revealed the golden moments of his career in the past decade along with his feelings on winning two prestigious Trophies.

It’s a great honour for me to receive this award: Virat Kohli

When asked what moments from the past decade he holds closest to his heart, Virat answered that winning 2011 World Cup, 2013 Champions Trophy along with registering a historic win in Australia in the Tests in 2018 have been extremely special moments of his career thus far. The right-hander also reckoned that he doesn’t want to rate his personal knocks as a batsman as for him every game played for India is as important and as crucial.

“Firstly, it’s a great honour for me to receive this award. The moments I hold closest to my heart in the last decade definitely has to be the World Cup win in 2011, the Champions Trophy win in 2013 and winning the series in Australia in 2018. Apart from that also there have been some very special games for Team India as well in the last decade and for me personally as well.

“I would not want to mention my personal knocks so much because then I will need to rate them, and I don’t like doing that. For me, every game played for India is as important and as crucial. It has just been an honour for me to go out there and perform for my team and for my country and it is a great honour for me to win this award.” said Virat Kohli as quoted by bcci.tv.in.