Published 18:46 IST, January 15th 2020
Rohit Sharma appreciates ICC award, but regrets India's biggest losses in 2019
The Vice-captain received the ODI Cricketer of the year award on Wednesday after a highly successful individual year where he broke a number of records
Rohit Sharma was grateful after receiving the ICC ODI Cricketer of 2019 award on Wednesday. However, he added that the team could have done much better and there was a lot to look forward to in 2020.
Sharma's super 2019
BCCI released a video where Sharma thanked ICC and BCCI and said that he was happy with the award and reflected on a positive year for the national team. He, however, added that the team could have done much better and that there was a lot to look forward to. He "I would like to thank ICC and BCCI. ICC for recognizing me for this award and BCCI for allowing me to represent the country. It is a prestigious award. It is great to be recognized in this fashion. We are very happy with the way we performed as a team in 2019. We could have done better but we have a lot of positives and a lot to look forward to in 2020."
In 2019, Sharma became the first batsman to hit 5 centuries in a single edition of the World Cup and finished the tournament as the highest run-scorer. He finished the year with 7 ODI hundreds. India's limited-overs vice-captain finished the year as the highest run-scorer in the format, scoring 1,490 runs.
The right-handed batsman became just the third Indian to win the prestigious award. The other two Indians to win the award are MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli. Dhoni won the award consecutively in 2008 and 2009 while Virat Kohli has won it thrice, in 2012, 2017 and 2018. As of now, only Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers have won the award on three occasions.
ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney congratulated the winners of the ICC awards and wished them all the best for the future. “On behalf of the ICC, I would like to congratulate all of the individual 2019 award winners as well as those players named in the ICC Teams of the Year.
Updated 18:46 IST, January 15th 2020