India captain Virat Kohli's extraordinary skills with the bat and ability to successfully lead the team across formats, including in the ongoing Test series against Australia, hasn't been surprising. The skipper has lived up to the expectations placed on him by an entire nation, and now it seems that of Cricket Australia.
Kohli was named the captain of the cricket body's one day international team of the year. He averaged 133.55 in the 14 ODIs played this year. In 2018 alone, he scored six centuries and three half centuries.
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India vice-captain Rohit Sharma has also made it to the ODI team of the year. Rohit and England's Jonny Bairstow were named the opener pair. Rohit has scored a brilliant 1,030 runs from 19 matches this year with an average of 73.57.
Keeping the skipper and vice-captain company are Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah, who happen to be the other Indians named in the team. With a five-wicket haul in the home series against West Indies and 45 wickets in all, Yadav has shown great promise this year.
Bumrah, meanwhile, had picked 22 wickets from 13 matches with best bowling figures of 4-35.
Joe Root and Jos Buttler of England, West Indies' Shimron Hetmyer, Sri Lanka's Thisara Perera, Bangladesh's Mustafizur Rahman and the prodigious Rashid Khan of Afghanistan were the other cricketers included in Cricket Australia's ODI team of the year.