Ashwin becomes the third Indian to claim the award after Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, as well as being the 12th player overall.

He was also crowned as the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year, with the 30-year-old having claimed 48 wickets and scored 336 runs across eight tests during the voting period, which lasted from September 14 in 2015 to September 20, 2016.

“It feels great to follow the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid in being named as the ICC Cricketer of the Year,” said Ashwin, who finished the year ranked as the number one ranked test bowler in the world.  

“To also win the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year makes it even better.

“There are a lot of people to thank for this wonderful achievement I have made. It has been a great couple of years but this year has been even more special.

“What is very noticeable is the way I have bowled and batted and the way I have gone about doing my business.

“What is more important, as far as I am concerned, is the number of people who have gone behind my success.”

South Africa’s wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock was named as the ICC One Day International Cricketer of the Year having scored 793 runs in 16 ODIs with four centuries and a half-century.

He averaged over 56 and also dismissed 15 batsmen behind the wickets during the voting period, becoming the second South African after AB de Villiers to claim the honour.

The Twenty20 Performance of the Year award was given to West Indies’ Carlos Brathwaite, after his stunning display in the World Twenty20 final in India.

Brathwaite scored a match-winning 34 not out off 10 balls, including four consecutive sixes in the final over to clinch the title for his team.

Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman earned the Emerging Cricketer of the Year award, while Afghanistan’s wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Shahzad picked up the Associate and Affiliate Cricketer of the Year honour.

New Zealand’s Suzie Bates was crowned winner of both the women’s one-day and Twenty20 Cricketer of the Year awards.