Cricket

Suryakumar Yadav To Lead ICC Men's T20I Team Of The Year, 4 Indians Included

By - 23 Jan 2024 02:14 AM

India's Suryakumar Yadav was named captain of the 2023 team by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The team consisted of a total of 4 Indians while the big players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, etc. were understandably absent, having not featured in the format since the conclusion of the T20 World Cup last year. But, the apex body did find places for other Indian stars like Ravi Bishnoi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Arshdeep Singh in the 11-member roster.

The first two picks at the top of the batting order were Suryakumar and Yashasvi of India, followed at No. 3 by Phil Salt of England.

Jaiswal made his debut for India last year. He debuted against the West Indies in August and amassed 430 runs at a strike rate of 159 in 14 knocks in 2023. In contrast, Salt scored 170 runs more than the next highest-scoring batter in the five-match T20I series with 331 runs.Nicholas Pooran, a West Indies wicketkeeper batter, was ranked No. 4 in the team, while Mark Chapman of New Zealand was ranked No. 5.

All-rounder Sikandar Raza of Zimbabwe was ranked sixth. Uganada's Alpesh Ramjani and Ireland's Mark Adair were probably the two names that not many expected to feature in the team.

Ramjani led the charts when it comes to T20I wickets for the year (55 at an economy of just 4.77) in 30 matches while Ireland's bowling all-rounder Adair took 26 wickets at an economy of 7.42, taking a wicket every 13 deliveries.In the bowling attack, Zimbabwe's Richard Ngarava and another Indian, Arshdeep Singh, were partnered with India's Ravi Bishnoi.

While Bishnoi claimed 18 wickets in just 44 overs during the year, Arshdeep claimed 26 wickets in 21 appearances for India. Due to his achievements, the leg-spinner also rose to the top of the ICC T20 Bowling Rankings.