Despite leading the team ranking chart in the One-Day Internationals, none of the Indian players made it to ICC’s ODI Team of the Year 2024. Four Sri Lankan players, including their ODI captain Charith Asalanka, three Pakistanis, two from Afghanistan and one from West Indies, made it to the combined XI of the top ODI players from the past year.
To everyone’s surprise, no player from the top-ranked sides, including Australia, India, England, New Zealand and South Africa, made the cut.
Meanwhile, after a super successful 2023, where India won the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and made it to the final of the home ODI World Cup, the Men in Blue played just three ODIs last year, losing two to Sri Lanka, conceding the bilateral series for the first time in 27 years; as a result, none could find a place.
Openers and middle order –
Rookie Pakistan opener Saim Ayub got rewarded for his impressive year with the bat, wherein he returned 515 runs from nine outings, averaging 64.37 and striking at over 100 (105.53). In 2024, Ayub scored two ODI hundreds and a fifty. Afghanistan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz accompanies him at the top, having registered almost similar runs (531) from 11 matches, including three centuries and two fifties.
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Three Sri Lankan batters, a West Indian and an all-rounder from Afghanistan, completed the middle and lower orders. Opener Pathum Nissanka (who scored 210* against Afghanistan in an ODI in February last year) bats at number three (on ICC's list), with keeper-batter Kusal Mendis and Asalanka taking the number four and fifth spots respectively.
While Mendis had a fantastic 2024, scoring 742 runs from 17 matches, the left-handed Asalanka averaged over 50 (50.2) playing in the middle overs, besides scoring 605 runs in 16 outings.
However, the breakthrough inclusion is of West Indies batter Sherfane Rutherford, who had a stellar 2024. The left-handed batter scored 425 runs, averaging a whopping 106 and striking at 120.1. Azmatullah Omarzai comes in at number seven for having scored 417 runs and picking 17 wickets across 12 ODIs in the past year.
The bowlers
Of the four bowlers, two are from Pakistan and one each from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
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The two pacers picked are Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf, who picked 15 and 13 wickets, respectively. While Shaheen bagged those at a bowling average of 17.6, Rauf’s read 22.4.
The two remaining bowlers are the spinners, Wanindu Hasaranga from Sri Lanka and Allah Ghazanfar from Afghanistan. Hasaranga was perhaps the best bowler of the year, picking 26 wickets from 10 matches, averaging just 15.6, while teenager Ghazanfar had a better bowling average of 13.57, bagging 21 wickets from 11 games.
Presenting the ICC Men’s ODI Team of the Year 2024 featuring the finest players from around the world 👏 pic.twitter.com/ic4BSXlXCc
— ICC (@ICC) January 24, 2025
Here is ICC’s ODI Team of the Year 2024 –
Saim Ayub, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Charith Asalanka (captain), Sherfane Rutherford, Azmatullah Omarzai, Wanindu Hasaranga, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Allah Ghazanfar
(With inputs from agencies)