Aakash Chopra picks his ODI XI of the decade

With the year 2019 ending and as well the decade coming to an end as well, many of the cricket experts and portals came out with their Tests, ODIs and T20I XIs of the year and decade. Given that 2019 turned out to be an interesting year for the 50-over format, given that England won their maiden World Cup title at home, despite amidst controversial circumstances.

Former India opener Aakash Chopra has joined in the bandwagon too and released his best ODI XI of the decade, which sees many legends in the team who have called time on their career and a couple of faces who have gone onto the next level during these times. Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers make the cut with the classy batsman chosen as an opener, while De Villiers, who retired in 2018, coming in at no.4. He also picked Ross Taylor in ODIs, which was surprising to many, but the Kiwi batsman scored 6428 runs in 155 ODIs.

Rohit Sharma opens, while Virat Kohli bats at No.3

Chopra picked the two highest run-getters in ODIs in Kohli and Rohit in the team as well, while Dhoni was picked as the wicketkeeper by Chopra. Kohli scored 11125 runs, while Rohit slammed 8249 runs in the decade, with a combined 70 centuries between them. Chopra then had Shakib-Al-Hasan and Lasith Malinga in his XI as well.

The Bangladeshi all-rounder has been phenomenal with 4276 runs and 177 wickets in the decade to his name. Malinga, on the other hand, picked 248 wickets in 162 matches during the decade and also picked two hat-tricks in the format, both coming in 2011. Jasprit Bumrah, who made his debut in 2016, picked 103 wickets in just 58 matches.

Chopra rounded off his best ODI XI of the decade by picking left-arm seamer Mitchell Starc and Proteas leggie Imran Tahir. Starc was the Man of the tournament in the 2015 World Cup, which Australia won, and he was the highest wicket-taker along with Trent Boult. Starc repeated his feat in the 2019 World Cup edition as well and ended up as the highest wicket-taker as well. He picked 172 wickets in 85 matches in the decade.

Imran Tahir is the only pick by Chopra that made his debut in this decade (2011) and retired as well in the same time period (2019) form ODIs. He picked an impressive 173 wickets in 107 games with the best of 7/45 and an amazing farewell performance in the 2019 World cup edition.

Here is Aakash Chopra’s ODI XI of the decade: