ICC names men’s ODI team of the year; snubs Shakib Al Hasan

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has named its men’s ODI team of the year 2019. Rohit Sharma and Shai Hope were picked as the openers. The former was the leading run-scorer to go with seven centuries. The Mumbai batter also became the first to notch five tons in a single edition of the World Cup. Hope wasn’t as attractive as Rohit, but ended the year as the third highest run-scorer.

Virat Kohli, Babar Azam and Kane Williamson form a versatile middle-order. Virat was the second highest run-scorer in the year, though he couldn’t score a ton in the World Cup. On the other hand, Williamson flourished as well, becoming the Player of the Tournament in the mega event. Babar has made a name for himself and has arguably been Pakistan’s standout batsman across formats.

Ben Stokes showed nerves of steel during the World Cup, having churned out quite a few knocks in the 80s. Jos Buttler’s power-hitting prowess has helped England immensely in the last 12 months. Mitchell Starc and Trent Boult tormented the batsmen with their accuracy. Starc bowled at a strike-rate of 20.5, though he played only 10 matches. Boult finished with an impressive economy of 4.70.

Mohammed Shami has been picked to partner Boult and Starc. The Indian pacer was the leading wicket-taker of the year with a hat-trick versus Afghanistan in the World Cup. Kuldeep Yadav looked rusty in patches, but ended the year with a hat-trick against Kieron Pollard’s West Indies.

No Shakib Al Hasan in the side

The major omission from the list was Shakib Al Hasan. The Bangladesh all-rounder had a World Cup alike a fairy-tale, albeit his team couldn’t go beyond the round-robin stage. In 2019, the Jessore-born played 11 ODIs and racked 746 runs at an incredible average of 95.88 with two tons and seven fifties.  

He was mightily effective with the leather as well. But in October, things took a turn and the ICC handed him a back-dated suspension. It was because he failed to report three corrupt approaches from a bookmaker. Shakib’s name was also removed from ICC’s rankings, much to his dismay.

Here’s ICC’s men’s ODI team

Rohit Sharma, Shai Hope, Virat Kohli (C), Babar Azam, Kane Williamson, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wk), Mitchell Starc, Trent Boult, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav