What’s the story?
Cricket Commentator Harsha Bhogle picked his ODI Team for the year 2016 for Cricbuzz and it was a star-studded line-up, consisting of some very fine players who had done very well for their respective countries.
Two Indians made the cut while England had the maximum representatives with three. South Africa and Sri Lanka had one player each as well.
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This is the second XI that Bhogle has selected after his Test Team of the Year, which also consisted of some star performers. Incidentally, that team also had two Indians in it with Virat Kohli joined by R Ashwin. The former also captained that side.
The heart of the matter
Bhogle has picked David Warner and Alex Hales as his openers. Both had a superb 2016 with the bat in hand finishing with 1388 and 743 runs in 23 and 14 matches respectively. Kohli followed them at 3 with Joe Root coming in at 4. Both batsmen had prolific years as well.
Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler will be the all rounder and wicket keeper respectively and the bowling attack will be led by Mitchell Starc, along with Jasprit Bumrah will form the fast bowling attack, while Imran Tahir will be joined by a very surprise inclusion in the form of Sunil Narine.
Harsha Bhogle’s ODI Team Of the Year: David Warner, Alex Hales, Virat Kohli(C), Joe Root, Angelo Matthews, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Mitchell Starc, Jasprit Bumrah, Imran Tahir, Sunil Narine.
What’s next?
A brand new year awaits each of these players and many more and they will be looking to start off on a bright note. The big event in 2017 will be the ICC Champions Trophy, which will take place in June and every member of the team picked by Bhogle will be vital to their side’s chances of winning the crown in the Old Blighty.
Sportskeeda’s take
The ODI Team of The Year selected has some very deserving candidates, but like in the Test Team of the Year, there is one name which is surprising. Sunil Narine played 10 ODIs for the West Indies in 2016 and took 15 wickets in the calendar year.
He had the option of picking Adam Zampa, who was the leading wicket-taker in the year with 30 scalps in 19 matches or could have gone for Adil Rashid, who took 29 wickets in 17 matches, but instead Narine, perhaps for the mystery element that he brings to the fore.
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