I always wanted to be one of the top players in the world: Virat Kohli

India captain Virat Kohli was honoured with the Polly Umrigar award at the Board of Control for Cricket in India annual awards ceremony on Wednesday in Bengaluru. He became the only cricketer to receive this award three times.

Upon receiving the award from former India wicket-keeper Farokh Engineer, Kohli thanked his teammates and acknowledged 2016 as the breakthrough year in his career. “It’s been quite unbelievable, the last 10-12 months. As cricketers you always have a breakthrough year. Starting later 2015 to end of last year probably I could recall, you know, when I get older as the breakthrough year in my career. All the hard-work, all the training, on a daily basis all the sacrifices I think came together nicely,” Kohli said at the glittering awards ceremony.

“Couldn’t have been possible without the help of my teammates. At times when you don’t do well is when champion players in your side step up. Everyone has been able to do that and that’s why we are the top side in the world. Its testimony to the kind of talent we have in the team. I thank all my teammates for the support, the trust and the effort. It’s a great honour receiving this for the third time,” he added.

The ceremony was conducted by Team Director Ravi Shastri, who asked Kohli about what triggered off the light in him that took his game to a different level.

“I always wanted to be one of the top players in the world so I understood what it would take for me to maintain my form in all three formats. Its very important in the transitional phase to be available for all three formats. The kind of position the BCCI has put me in I’m very thankful of. I take it as an opportunity, I don’t take this as a job. I’ve been put in a place that I need to do the right things, set the right examples and follow a certain path that the whole team believes in.”

“My early days in my career as well there have been people who doubted the way I’ve gone about with my game. Even now there are doubters and haters all around. But one thing is for sure that I’ve always believed in myself, always believed in my heart that if I work hard 120% everyday of my life then I won’t be answerable to anyone,” Kohli said.

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Last year, the 28-year-old was on a roll, amassing 1215 runs in 12 Tests at an average of over 75 including a record four double hundreds in consecutive series. In ODIs, he scored 739 runs in 10 games 92.37 with three hundreds and slammed 641 runs in 15 Twenty20 internationals at 106.83 with seven half-centuries to his name.