The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday announced the first of their annual awards – naming the ICC men’s ODI Team of the Year 2024. However, surprising not even a single player made the playing 11 of this side from Team India – the finalists of the ODI World Cup 2023.
The reason behind that could be the fact that Rohit Sharma’s side only played in three ODI matches throughout the year 2024. The focus was on 20-over cricket till the T20 World Cup 2024, which India managed to win again after a gap of 17 years under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma.
India played only three ODIs – an away series against Sri Lanka – losing two of them while the third one ended in a tie. It was the first time that India lost a bilateral ODI series to Sri Lanka after a gap of 27 years, since 1997.
The all-star team announced by the ICC features four players from Sri Lanka, three each from Pakistan and Afghanistan and one from the West Indies.
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
Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka was named skipper of the ICC team as well for his stupendous batting through the year. In his 16 ODI appearances in 2024, Asalanka scored 605 Runs at an average of 50.2 Average, including a century and four fifties.
Sri Lanka played 18 ODIs in the year gone by, the highest among all teams, and won 12 of them. Pakistan picked up seven victories from its nine ODI engagements, while Afghanistan won eight of their 14 one-dayers.
Big-hitting West Indian Sherfane Rutherford, who made his international debut in 2023, was the lone non-Asian in the all star XI for his 425 runs from nine games at an astonishing average of 106.2.
The three Pakistan players who feature in this line-up are opener Saim Ayub – who scored a couple of centuries in the ODI series win over South Africa, pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf, who starred in the ODI series win over Australia.
ICC Men’s ODI Team of the Year for 2024
Charith Asalanka (C) (Sri Lanka), Saim Ayub (Pakistan), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Afghanistan), Pathum Nissanka (Sri Lanka), Kusal Mendis (WK) (Sri Lanka), Sherfane Rutherford (West Indies), Azmatullah Omarzai (Afghanistan), Wanindu Hasaranga (Sri Lanka), Shaheen Shah Afridi (Pakistan), Haris Rauf (Pakistan), AM Ghazanfar (Afghanistan)
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