Best ODI XI of the decade

It has been a dramatic decade in the ODIs, which saw three different World Champions, two Champions Trophy winners from the subcontinent and not to forget, it has witnessed one of the most controversial and unforgettable World Cups finals in 2019. For what its worth, the format has not lost any of its relevance with the emergence of T20Is, which was the fear in the early days of this decade.

Another major factor affecting the game significantly in this decade was the constant change in field restriction laws. The two new ball system completely took the reverse-swing facet out of the format and made things a little more convenient for the batsmen. One can only feel for the bowlers, but they didn’t just sit back, they rather fought back and gave us, the audience, so many moments to remember.

To what has been such an eventful decade (2010-2019), here’s the honorary best XI of the format across all the teams:

1. Rohit Sharma

To call his last six years eventful would be an understatement. From getting ignored for the 2011 World Cup to turning an opener in the 2013 Champions Trophy, Rohit Sharma spent three years finding himself and trying to understand where his strengths lie, he finally did and the world of cricket found one of the finest openers of all time.

Rohit struggled to face the new ball away from home, whenever there was a lot of lateral movement. He took his time to settle into the process and was given ample time by the management. All of that investment was fruitful in more than one way, as the man ended up smashing 6 hundreds in World Cups, on level terms with Sachin Tendulkar (five tons in just the 2019 edition).

Rohit’s statistics speak for itself. In 177 matches, he scored 7,991 runs at an average of 52.92 and no opener has scored more runs than him. Not to forget, his tally includes 27 centuries, a mind-boggling 3 double centuries and is also the only cricketer with more than 200 sixes in this span of time.