ICC Teams of the Year

Chosen by a selection panel chaired by Anil Kumble.


ICC Test team of the year

David Warner (Australia), Alastair Cook (England, captain), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Younis Khan (Pakistan), Steven Smith (Australia), Joe Root (England), Sarfraz Ahmed (Pakistan, wicketkeeper), Stuart Broad (England), Trent Boult (New Zealand), Yasir Shah (Pakistan), Josh Hazlewood (Australia). 12th man: Ravichandran Ashwin (India).

ICC one-day team of the year

Tillakaratne Dilshan (Sri Lanka), Hashim Amla (South Africa), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka, wicketkeeper), AB de Villiers (South Africa, captain), Steven Smith (Australia), Ross Taylor (New Zealand), Trent Boult (New Zealand), Mohammed Shami (India), Mitchell Starc (Australia), Mustafizur Rahman (Bangladesh), Imran Tahir (South Africa). 12th man: Joe Root (England).

Seem reasonable to me, but very few India players in either team - I am straight off the the cricinfo comments to witness the carnage and no doubt quite a few questioning why Sachin isn't in both teams!

Murali Vijay in tests and Kohli in ODis are glaring omissions...and yasir ahead of ashwin a 50-50 call

Can't argue with the Test team too much. All the players deserve to be there, though as KPF points out would have been nice to find room for Ashwin somewhere. On spinning pitches he'd come in for one of the seamers.

Not a fan of the balance of the ODI team. You've got Starc at 7, then four guys from whom three are really rabbits, and Shami at best a n°9. Very long tail. Also four seamers and just one spinner... OK not many genuine all-rounders had particularly great years, but for me that's too light on batting. And again, all the batsmen picked are top 3/4 players, who of course tended to be the most successful this year. You need to find some guys who can come in and explode from early on to fill the 6-7 positions at least.

Given I've erased the horror of the World Cup from memory, and haven't watched much ODI cricket not involving England this year, I'm at a bit of a loss to suggest alternatives, but for me you need to ditch one of the seamers and Ross Taylor (fine though his year was) and bring in two lower middle-order players, preferably one of which who can bowl some spin to a good standard.

Suggestions?

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Can't argue with the Test team too much. All the players deserve to be there, though as KPF points out would have been nice to find room for Ashwin somewhere. On spinning pitches he'd come in for one of the seamers.

Not a fan of the balance of the ODI team. You've got Starc at 7, then four guys from whom three are really rabbits, and Shami at best a n°9. Very long tail. Also four seamers and just one spinner... OK not many genuine all-rounders had particularly great years, but for me that's too light on batting. And again, all the batsmen picked are top 3/4 players, who of course tended to be the most successful this year. You need to find some guys who can come in and explode from early on to fill the 6-7 positions at least.

Given I've erased the horror of the World Cup from memory, and haven't watched much ODI cricket not involving England this year, I'm at a bit of a loss to suggest alternatives, but for me you need to ditch one of the seamers and Ross Taylor (fine though his year was) and bring in two lower middle-order players, preferably one of which who can bowl some spin to a good standard.

Suggestions?

Shahid Afridi

Afrid not played ODIs since WC and his performances there were not good - about 100 runs and 2 wickets in 7 matches.

Glenn Maxwell had some good performances in 2015 with bat and ball. 644 runs at an average of 46, SR 136 and 19 wickets at an average <30 and RPO <6

Maxwell's a great shout LT, would happily stick him in there!

It has to be Shakib Al Hasan. He's the best all-rounder in the game at present, by some distance.......

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Can't argue with the Test team too much. All the players deserve to be there, though as KPF points out would have been nice to find room for Ashwin somewhere. On spinning pitches he'd come in for one of the seamers.

Not a fan of the balance of the ODI team. You've got Starc at 7, then four guys from whom three are really rabbits, and Shami at best a n°9. Very long tail. Also four seamers and just one spinner... OK not many genuine all-rounders had particularly great years, but for me that's too light on batting. And again, all the batsmen picked are top 3/4 players, who of course tended to be the most successful this year. You need to find some guys who can come in and explode from early on to fill the 6-7 positions at least.

Given I've erased the horror of the World Cup from memory, and haven't watched much ODI cricket not involving England this year, I'm at a bit of a loss to suggest alternatives, but for me you need to ditch one of the seamers and Ross Taylor (fine though his year was) and bring in two lower middle-order players, preferably one of which who can bowl some spin to a good standard.

Suggestions?

Don't let Olly see this - else, it'll be #ansariforiccteamoftheyear!

msp83 wrote:It has to be Shakib Al Hasan. He's the best all-rounder in the game at present, by some distance.......

421 runs at 42 and 24 wickets at 28. Better RPO but much worse Batting SR compared to Maxwell in 2015.

Just to note that in this case, "year" means Sept 2014- August 2015. Which is why Shah gets the gong over Ashwin. Good teams. No balance in the ODI but its expected in dream teams