ICC names Rohit Sharma captain in Men's T20I Team of the Year

The International Cricket Council has unveiled its Men's T20I Team of the Year for 2024. Star India batter, Rohit Sharma, has been named as the captain of the side, leading the pack of wolves who were among the best performers in the format in 2024.

Rohit scored 378 runs in 11 matches in his last calendar year in T20Is, which also included a hundred against Afghanistan in Bengaluru. Another significant performance of the Nagpur-born came in the Men's T20 World Cup 2024, where he took down the Australian attack to the cleaners, handing India a berth in the finals, and later, also leading them to a triumphant campaign at the tournament.

Opening alongside Rohit is all-rounder Travis Head, who had a stupendous outing with the bat last year with 539 runs at a strike-rate of 178.47 including four half-centuries. The southpaw absolutely dismantled both pacers and spinners, garnering huge number of runs for himself in 2024.

England's wicketkeeper-batter Phil Salt alongside his West Indies counterpart Nicholas Pooran also featured in the list at no. 3 and no. 4 respectively. Both had impressed the dressing room and the fans alike with their exploits with the bat and smart work with the gloves behind the stumps in 2024, adding them as a key member of the middle-order alongside Pakistan's star batter Babar Azam, who secured a place at no. 5 in the line-up.

Next names that feature in the list are a quartet of star all-rounders in the likes of Sikandar Raza (Zimbabwe), Hardik Pandya (India), Wanindu Hasaranga (Sri Lanka) and Rashid Khan (Afghanistan). Each of these athletes showed all-round performances and contributed in more than one way to help their team's cause in 2024. Hardik, in particular, was excellent with the ball, and his last over in the World Cup against South Africa sealed the deal for the Men in Blue.

ICC has kept only two pacers in the T20I Team of the Year for 2024, and the names are none other than India's Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh. Arshdeep, who is now the highest wicket-taker for India in the format, had supported Bumrah very well in his campaign at the World Cup, and the previous year was nothing short of a dreamy one for the left-arm pacer, as he bagged a brilliant 36 wickets, averaging only 13.50 in the calendar year.

ICC Men's T20I Team of the Year 2024

Rohit Sharma (captain), Travis Head, Phil Salt, Babar Azam, Nicholas Pooran, Sikandar Raza, Hardik Pandya, Rashid Khan, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh