ICC Champions Trophy 2017: ICC names Team of the Tournament; three Indians in the XI

Sarfraz Ahmed was named the captain of the team

What’s the story?

The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the official team of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 earlier today. Four players from champions Pakistan made it to the team and Sarfraz Ahmed was named the captain. Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were the only Indians who made the XI.

Ahmed was ecstatic to be named as the captain and said, “To be appointed as captain of the Team of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, which includes some of the finest and most attractive cricketers of this generation, is the perfect icing on the cake. But I am happier and delighted for players like Fakhar Zaman and Hassan Ali, who impressed their peers through their talent and performances, and found their way to the side.”

In case you didn’t know…

After almost three weeks of intense action, it all came down to the big final on Sunday. Pakistan, the overwhelming underdogs at the start of the tournament, had beaten all the odds to make it to the final. They were up against arch-rivals and outright favourites India at the Oval in the all-important match.

What unfolded was quite stunning as Pakistan completely outplayed India in all aspects of the game. In the end, they beat India by 180 runs to win the title.

The Details

A jury of cricket experts, including former English captain Michael Atherton, former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja, editor of Wisden Almanack Lawrence Booth, and cricket correspondent Julian Guyer amongst others selected the team.

Here is what the team (in batting order) looks like:

Shikhar Dhawan (India), Fakhar Zaman (Pakistan), Tamim Iqbal (Bangladesh), Virat Kohli (India), Joe Root (England), Ben Stokes (England), Sarfraz Ahmed (Pakistan) (c) (wk), Adil Rashid (England), Junaid Khan (Pakistan), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (India), Hassan Ali (Pakistan)

12^th man: Kane Williamson (New Zealand)

What’s next?

India are set to host the next edition of the ICC Champions Trophy in 2021 which will be their second time hosting the event.

Author’s take

The team includes all the big performers of the tournament, from highest run-scorer Dhawan to highest wicket-taker Hassan Ali. However, a few like Rohit Sharma, Mohammad Amir and Shakib Al Hasan missed out despite performing admirably. Also, the inclusion of Joe Root ahead of Kane Williamson (who was named as the 12^th man) is quite surprising.