We are standing exactly just a few days away from the 1st morning of 2018. In regards to Sports, it was an ambivalent one for India. We scaled many new heights this year, but also failed to win it big by whiskers on several occasions. Who can forget India’s shocking defeat against Pakistan at ICC Champions Trophy in the grand finale or PV Sindhu’s one more heart-breaking loss at Dubai World Super Series Finals 2017.
Sportsperson of the Year
The Year 2017 will go in to the annals of the history as one of India’s most memorable years for Indian athletes. Each one of our superstar players tried their best. Be it Cricket, Wrestling or Badminton, every sportsperson performed their level best. However, we will only discuss the nominees here, and will eventually declare the winner in the subsequent paragraphs.
Also Read: The Best Sportsperson of the Year 2016 Honour goes to…
And the Top 5 Nominees for the Best Sportsperson Honour
#5 – Mithali Raj: The incumbent Indian women’s cricket team captain, Mithali Raj won many hearts this year. She led the Indian team to the final of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup twice, and also accomplished the rare feat of achieving 6000 runs in ODIs. Interestingly, she has also made it to the list of in Lord’s list of top 20 players of 2016 at 13th position.
#4 – PV Sindhu: The Rio Olympics silver medalist PV Sindhu had a considerable amount of success and failures this year. Last year, she stunned the world storming into the prestigious Rio Olympics final, and eventually setting for Silver. This year too, expectations were huge but she failed two big finals. Besides a silver medal at the Olympics, World Championships, and Super Series Final, she also won the India Open and Korea Open in 2017.
Also Read: The best choice for Indian Sportsperson of the Year 2015 is…
#3 – Kidambi Srikanth: The latest India’s badminton sensation, Kidambi, is enjoying the best form of his life. He has consolidated his position at career best rank two last month before slipping into the fourth spot a few days back. The year 2017 was like a fairytale for this young athlete winning back to back four famed tournaments in 2017. Kidambi won the French Open, Denmark Open, Australia Open and Indonesia Open in a scintillating manner. However, he couldn’t win Singapore Open against his compatriot Sai Praneeth, another superstar in the making.
#2 – Sushil Kumar and Sakshi Malik: The second spot goes to the wrestling duo of Sushil Kumar and Sakshi Malik jointly. Both the athletes performed brilliantly this year fetching gold in their respective category at premiere championships. Both Sushil Kumar and Sakshi Malik are now the recipients of the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.
Sushil Kumar won gold medal at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has also won 2008 Bronze and 2012 Gold at Beijing and London Olympics respectively.
Similarly, Sakshi Malik won Bronze at last year’s Rio Olympics, and then she followed it up with another fantastic performance against New Zealand’s Tayla Tuahine Ford 13-2 in the final of the 62kg women’s freestyle category at Commonwealth Wrestling Championships 2017 in Johannesburg.
Hold your nerve and breath. And finally, the Winner is…
#1 – Virat Kohli: What a superb player he is. The incumbent Indian captain is a modern-day Sachin Tendulkar or more than that. Virat Kohli is the leading run-scorer across formats with 2818-run including 11 tons in his kitty across formats. He is completing the run-riot that Tendulkar left behind in 2013.
The dashing batsman scored three consecutive tons against Sri Lanka in the recently concluded three-test series to take his run tally to 610. Virat is also the world’s number one ranked cricketer in both T20Is and ODIs formats.
Kohli also holds the second spot in Test ranking after Steve Smith. It is his consistency that the Indian captain has now become fastest to score 16,000 international runs across formats. The Indian skipper now has 5000+ Test runs, 9,030 ODI runs and 1,956 T20I runs in 105 Test innings, 194 ODI and 51 T20I innings.
Sportsperson of the Year 2017 – Virat Kohli
The mesmerizing and fabulous match-winning performances of the dashing Delhite innings after innings make him an astute choice for the BEST SPORTSPERSON HONOUR for 2017. The Sports Mirror wishes lots of congratulations and success to Virat Kohli and his fans on this occasion.
Now it would be great if you would share your Sportsperson of the Year. Your feedback is always highly appreciated. Thank you!
Tags: Best Sportsperson, India, Kidambi Srikanth, Mithali Raj, PV Sindhu, Rio Olympics 2016, Sakshi Malik, Sushil Kumar, Virat Kohli, Year 2017
