Ashwin presented Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy

R Ashwin was on Tuesday (March 28) awarded the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy in Dharamsala for being named the ICC Cricketer of the Year 2016. With 48 wickets and 336 runs against his name in eight Tests, and 27 wickets in 19 Twenty20 Internationals during the voting period, Ashwin was a popular choice for the title.

Ashwin is the third Indian, and the 12th player overall to win the award. He was presented the honour by Kapil Dev.

While Rahul Dravid had won the title in 2004, Sachin Tendulkar was presented with the same in 2010. Other recipients of the award include Andrew Flintoff and Jacques Kallis (joint-winners in 2005), Ricky Ponting (2006 and 2007), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (2008), Mitchell Johnson (2009 and 2014), Jonathan Trott (2011), Kumar Sangakkara (2012), Michael Clarke (2013) and Steve Smith (2015).

The award was judged by a voting academy, which was entirely independent of the ICC and in which members of the media from all the 10 Test-playing countries were eligible to vote.

They took into consideration performances between September 14, 2015, and September 20, 2016. During this period, Ashwin produced some marvellous all-round performances across all three formats of the game, and particularly in Tests.

Ashwin's match-winning contribution against South Africa in Nagpur, and against the West Indies in Antigua and Gros Islet earned him Player of the Match awards on all three occasions.

Against South Africa, Ashwin bagged 31 wickets in the series, becoming the seventh Indian to claim 30 or more wickets in a single Test series. Ashwin also went past Muttiah Muralitharan with his tally, becoming the most successful offspinner against South Africa in a series.

Ashwin's exploits in the Nagpur Test took him to the No. 2 position in the ICC rankings for bowlers in Test cricket, behind Dale Steyn. His 7 for 66 in the second innings was the 15th time he had picked up a five-wicket haul, which came at the rate of almost one in every second game he played.

The wily offspinner continued his good work when India travelled to the Caribbean next, taking 17 wickets at an average of 23.17, and picking up yet another Player of the Series award.

India accomplished something that it had not achieved in its previous ten trips to the Caribbean since 1953: two Test wins against the home side in any one series, and Ashwin played a major hand in accomplishing that for the side.

It was not just with the ball that Ashwin troubled Jason Holder and Co. He registered his fourth century against the West Indies (in Gros Islet) in only his ninth innings, becoming the third quickest to do so after Australian Doug Walters (6 inns) and fellow Indian Sunil Gavaskar (8 inns).

He finished 2016 as the top ranked Test bowler on the ICC charts.

Ashwin played only two ODIs during the voting period, but made the most out of the opportunities he had in T20Is. He even achieved his career-best bowling figures – 4 for 8 against Sri Lanka in Visakhapatanam – in the shortest format during the period. He crippled Sri Lanka by removing its top four batsmen, helping India restrict it to just 82 in the match. He bagged nine wickets at an average of 3.88 and a fantastic economy of 3.18 in the series.