Ian Bishop picks his ODI team of the decade

Ian Bishop, the former West Indies fast bowler and current commentator, picked his ODI eleven of the decade. The veteran made the picks during a conversation with Indian journalist Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz. To start with he named David Warner and Rohit Sharma as the openers. Both batters are explosive prospects and have been primary reasons behind their teams’ success.

They started as batters, who promised but threw their wickets away. However, with time, they matured. Virat Kohli was Bishop’s number three and it didn’t spring a surprise bearing in mind the Indian skipper’s incredible numbers in the format. At number four, Bishop went for AB de Villiers, the former South African cricketer, who retired from the sport way back in May 2018.

But there have been talks of him making a comeback for the national team for the T20 World Cup in Australia. During this while, the Pretoria-born has continued playing franchise T20 cricket around the world. Ross Taylor ends the list of specialist batsmen. The New Zealand batter has been a consistent performer and even into his late 30s, he is a bedrock of the Black Caps’ batting unit.

Ian Bishop picks Malinga in place of Bumrah

Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan is Bishop’s only genuine all-rounder in the playing eleven. Shakib is currently serving a ban from the ICC after he failed to report three corrupt approaches. Throughout his career, the 33-year-old Jessore-born has ruled the roost as far as rankings are concerned.

For the keeper’s slot, Bishop picked MS Dhoni, who is at the twilight of his glorious career. Dhoni has won every other ICC’s limited-overs tournament and has also taken India to the top of the Test rankings. As his pacers, Bishop zeroed in on Mitchell Starc, Dale Steyn and Lasith Malinga.

He had a dilemma between Malinga and Jasprit Bumrah, but eventually he went for the Sri Lankan speedster. As the sole specialist spinner, Bishop opted for Rashid Khan. The Afghanistan tweaker is only 21 years old and has 133 wickets in ODIs from 71 matches at an economy of 4.16.

Here is Ian Bishop’s XI

Rohit Sharma, David Warner, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Ross Taylor, Shakib Al Hasan, MS Dhoni (C & WK), Mitchell Starc, Dale Steyn, Lasith Malinga, Rashid Khan