ODI Team of the Year 2023: It’s that time of the year when most people around the globe retrospect their lives and relive all the moments once again. Most of the time we all look back and reflect upon moments and events that happened throughout the year. However, this phenomenon is not limited to normal people as sports broadcasters across the world have started announcing their best teams of the year.
Moving along the same lines, Star Sports has released its ODI Team of the Year 2023, which features as many as 8 Indian cricketers. The likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah among others have made a place for themselves in the list.
To begin with, Indian captain Rohit Sharma featured alongside Shubman Gill for the opening combination. The two Indian players had a fantastic year. While Rohit Sharma excelled in his fiery approach, Gill played second fiddle’s role quite nicely to complement his partner.
The middle-order comprised the likes of Virat Kohli, Daryl Mitchell, KL Rahul and Heinrich Klassen. All of them were simply outstanding in their roles throughout the year.
For the spinners option, the broadcaster clubbed Australian Adam Zampa with Indian wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav. Meanwhile, the pace attack was completely formed with the Indian players. Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Siraj were the three frontline pacers in the list.
It’s quite unusual to see that someone of Mitchell Starc’s calibre, Pat Cummins’ calibre hasn’t managed to feature in a list of best ODI Team of the Year.
However, this ODI Team of the Year 2023 hasn’t received as much praise as it would have thought among the fans. The cricket experts and fans were on the same page questioning the process followed by the broadcaster to pick such a playing11.
Notably, such teams are picked with the support of fan votes. The player who gets the most votes for a particular spot wins and makes a place for himself in the team. However, this process is truly unfair as 70 per cent of the total votes cast were from the Indian region, which would obviously favour the Indian players over others.
Questioning the same, cricketer-turned-commentator Ravi Shastri said, “It’s a joke. Rashid Khan… does he play? I think there must be only Indians voting in there. No one else.”
“Mitchell Marsh, Rashid Khan, Quinton de Kock. One player from the World Cup-winning team in Adam Zampa? What a No. 7. Rashid is one of the best around. For him not to make the cut there, unbelievable. Jadeja is the best all-rounder. He and Rashid would have been the ideal combination across all surfaces in the world,” he added.
ODI Team of the Year 2023
Rohit Sharma (India), Shubman Gill (India), Virat Kohli (India), Daryl Mitchell (New Zealand), KL Rahul (wk)(India), Heinrich Klassen (South Africa), Adam Zampa (Australia), Kuldeep Yadav (India), Mohammad Shami (India), Jasprit Bumrah (India), Mohammad Siraj (India).