Babar Azam named captain of ICC ODI Team of the Year 2021
After T20s, no Indians in this one too
Dubai: After going unrepresented in the ICC’s men’s T20 Team of the Year due to a disastrous World Cup campaign in the UAE, no Indian player featured in the global body’s ODI Team of the Year which features two players from minnow Ireland.
Incidentally, the team also doesn’t have any Australia, England, New Zealand or West Indies players.
The team, which has Pakistan’s Babar Azam as its captain, has two Pakistanis including Fakhar Zaman.
South Africans Janneman Malan and Rassie van der Dussen, Bangladeshis Shakib Al Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman and Mushfiqur Rahim, who is also the designated wicketkeeper, Sri Lankans Wanindu Hasaranga and Dushmantha Chameera along with Irishmen Paul Stirling and Simi Singh form the rest of the squad.
India, in the year 2021, played six ODIs and won four, losing two.
The two 50-over series that it played were against England at home, which it won 2-1, and the other was an away clash against Sri Lanka in the island nation which it also won by an identical margin.
The problem with the non-selection of an Indian player in the XI has more to do with the lack of matches rather than a poor show.
The only Indian player who has played all the ODI matches in 2021 is veteran opener Shikhar Dhawan, who scored 297 runs in six games.
The likes of Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma only played three ODIs in 2021 and the same goes for the bowlers, who also didn’t play all the six games.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was there in five of those six games with a tally of nine wickets.
In order to make it to the team of the year, there have to be enough impactful performances to earn points which the Indians didn’t have.
For example, Ireland’s Stirling had a whopping 705 runs in 14 ODIs in 2021 with an average of 79.66 which made him an automatic selection.
Proteas opener Janneman has scored 509 runs in 8 games with an average of nearly 85.
Babar, who has played the least among the 11 players, has 405 runs in six games with two hundreds while Zaman has 369 runs in the year.
In the middle-order, Rassie van der Dussen had an average of 57 in the year 2021 with 342 runs in eight games while Shakib impressed as an all-rounder with 277 runs and 17 wickets.
Mushfiqur Rahim had a 400-plus run-tally along with stumpings and catches while Wanindu Hasaranga scored 356 run and picked 12 wickets.
The two pacers, Mustafizur Rahman and Dushmantha Chameera, had 18 and 20 wickets, respectively, while off-spinner Simi had 19 scalps to his credit.
Rohit, Pant and Ashwin feature in ICC’s ‘Test Team of Year
The flamboyant Rohit Sharma featured as opener, Rishabh Pant as wicketkeeper and R Ashwin as the lone specialist spinner in the ICC men’s ‘Test Team of the Year’.
After going unrepresented in the ICC men’s ‘T20 Team of the Year’ due to a disastrous World Cup campaign in the UAE, it was no surprise to see the Indians miss out in the apex body’s ODI side as well after playing just six matches, even as the list featured two players from minnows Ireland.
India, the world number one in Tests, however have three representatives in the year’s best team for the game’s longest format, with New Zealand talisman Kane Williamson as its skipper.
Overall, India played 14 Tests in 2021 and managed to win eight out of them. They lost three Tests last year, including the heart-breaking defeat in the World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand.
Rohit, who was recently elevated as India’s white-ball captain as Virat Kohli’s successor, cracked 906 runs in the calendar year at an average of 47.68 with two centuries.
Both of Rohit’s centuries were memorable knocks in contrasting conditions against England — one in Chennai and the other in overcast conditions away from home at the Oval.
Pant, who established himself as India’s first-choice wicketkeeper-batter in all the three formats, scored 748 runs in 12 matches at an average of 39.36 with one memorable ton against England at Ahmedabad. He also accounted for 39 dismissals in 23 innings, with his glovework continuing to improve.
The seasoned Ashwin scalped 54 wickets in nine matches at an average of 16.64, making a big impact in the home series against England and New Zealand. He also chipped in with 355 runs at an average of 25.35, which included a vital century against England in Chennai.
Besides the Indian trio and Williamson, the ICC Test team has one Sri Lankan in Dimuth Karunaratne, one Australian in Marnus Labuschagne, England captain Joe Root, New Zealand’s Kyle Jamison and three Pakistanis in Fawad Alam, Hasan Ali and Shaheen Afridi.
ICC Test rankings: India drop to third place, Australia on top
Australia displaced India from the top of the Test rankings after their 4-0 drubbing of England in the recently-concluded Ashes series, even as the Virat Kohli-led side squandered a 1-0 lead to go down against South Africa.
After suffering a 1-2 series loss in South Africa, India dropped to the third spot while inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) winners New Zealand held onto their second position after a 1-1 drawn series at home against Bangladesh, which included the hosts’ first ever loss to Bangladesh at home across formats.
South Africa’s 2-1 win over India at home took them one spot up to fifth place, while England were in fourth position after a disastrous Ashes campaign Down Under.
India lost the top spot by losing the second and third Tests after winning the first in Centurion.
Australia, with 119 points, are three ahead of India in the rankings.
Overall, India played 14 Tests in 2021 and managed to win eight out of them. They lost three Tests last year, including the heart-breaking defeat in the World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand.
Pakistan went down one spot to sixth, while Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Ireland retained their positions.
