Rohit Sharma, Rahul Dravid win top honours at Ceat Awards

Mumbai, Aug 22 (PTI) India captain Rohit Sharma was named the ‘Men’s International Cricketer of the Year’, while former head coach Rahul Dravid was conferred with the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ at the Ceat Cricket Rating Awards 2023-24 here on Wednesday.

India’s batting mainstay Virat Kohli was named the ‘Men’s ODI Batter of the Year’ while Mohammed Shami, the highest wicket-taker during the 2023 ODI World Cup with 24 scalps, was named the ‘ODI Bowler of the Year’.

Yashasvi Jaiswal, who raked up 712 runs against England during the five-Test series earlier this year, was named the ‘Men’s Test Batter of the Year’, while R. Ashwin was named the ‘Men’s Test Bowler of the Year’.

BCCI secretary Jay Shah, who was awarded for excellence in sports administration, said that the Indian teams will look to clinch more trophies in the future.

“As I told you in Rajkot, that we are going to host our flag in Barbados, and our captain did that. If we have the blessing of 1.4 billion people, then we can do the same in the Champions Trophy, World Test Championship final and the Women’s T20 World Cup,” he said.

Tamil Nadu captain R Sai Kishore, who led his team to the Ranji Trophy final last season, was named the ‘Domestic cricketer of the Year’.

New Zealand’s Tim Southee was given the ‘Men’’ T20I Bowler of the Year’ award while England’s Phil Salt was adjudged the ‘Best Batter of the Year’ in the shortest format.

India women’s team skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was presented with a memo for leading the country in most matches in T20I history, while her deputy and opening batter Smriti Mandhana was adjudged the ‘Women’s Indian Batter of the Year’.

Deepti Sharma was named the ‘Indian Bowler of the Year’.

Opening batter Shafali Verma was presented with a memento for scoring the fastest double century in women’s Test cricket — a feat which she achieved off 194 balls against South Africa in the Chennai Test earlier this year.

Shreyas Iyer, who captained Kolkata Knight Riders to their third IPL title earlier this year, was also presented with a memo for ‘outstanding leadership’.