Indian captain Virat Kohli was named as the leading cricketer in the world by Wisden for the second year running in the 2018 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.

Writing in the Almanack, out now, editor Lawrence Booth said: “For the second year in a row, Indian captain Virat Kohli is Wisden’s Leading Cricketer in the World. In all formats in 2017, he scored 2,818 runs – more than 700 ahead of Joe Root in second place. Three of his five Test hundreds were doubles, and the other two unbeaten, and his 1,460 one-day international runs were unsurpassed.”

Following a sensational year of cricket in 2017, Kohli, was also named ODI Cricketer of the Year and overall Cricketer of the Year at the ICC awards in January, 2018.

In a moment of double happiness for Indian cricket fans, women’s team captain in Tests and ODIs, Mithali Raj was named as the Leading Women’s Cricketer in the World.

Editor Lawrence Booth said: “Mithali Raj made it an Indian double after she was named the Leading Woman Cricketer in the World. In the course of captaining her country to within a whisker of the World Cup title, she became the leading run-scorer in the history of women’s one-day internationals, and completed her seventh successive half-century, another record.”

Raj led India to the ICC Women’s World Cup final in 2017, narrowing losing out to hosts England at the Lord’s.

Three of England Women’s World Cup winners were among the traditional Five Cricketers of the Year, along with West Indies’ Shai Hope and Essex’s Jamie Porter, while Rashid Khan was the first ever to be named Leading Twenty20 Cricketer in the World.

(With inputs from wisden.com)