The ICC has released three squads named the ICC Team of the Decade for the T20, ODI and T20 format. All three squads feature a number of Indian players. The ICC has named MS Dhoni as the captain for the T20 and ODI squads while Virat Kohli has been named the captain for the test team.
Some of the selections in these three squads are a bit strange and there are also questions as to whether the ICC has given Indian players special treatment with the captains being Kohli and Dhoni. We take a look at the squads below.
T20 Squad – MS Dhoni Captain
It’s hard to argue that MS Dhoni should not be the captain of the T20 Team of the Decade squad. However, some of the selections are a bit suspect. The ICC has named Chris Gayle and Rohit Sharma has openers. The two are the biggest hitters of a cricket ball and are automatic selections.
Aaron Finch comes in at three, followed by Virat Kohli and AB Devilliers. The big show Glenn Maxwell is at six, followed by Dhoni. Kieron Pollard is the all-rounder at seven and the three bowlers are Rashid Khan from Afghanistan, L Malinga and J Bumrah.
Why the ICC has selected only three frontline bowlers for the T20 team of the decade is baffling. We would remove Gayle and replace him with Warner, we will remove Finch and bring in Kohli at his usual number three slot. We replace Maxwell with Ben Stokes and get Andree Russell to take Finch is place ahead of Kieron Pollard. This makes the side a lot more powerful and well-balanced.
ODI Squad – MS Dhoni Captain
The selectors have gone with R Sharma and D Warner as the openers and its hard to argue with that opening combination. Kohli and Devilliers at three and four, followed by Shakib Al Hasan at five and MS Dhoni as captain at number six.
Ben Stokes gets a nod from the selectors for the ODI squad and will serve as the second all-rounder. The four bowlers are Trent Boult, Mitchell Starc, Lasith Malinga and Imran Tahir. The choice of bringing in Shakib is great as the premier all-rounder from Bangladesh has delivered with both ball and bat in this format.
However, we would change the bowling line-up. We would take out L Malinga and replace him with J Bumrah and replace Imran Tahir with Rashid Khan.
Test Squad – Virat Kohli Captain
The test squad has Virat Kohli as the captain which we don’t think is a good choice given the number of different options in this squad. The selectors have chosen former England captain Alistair Cook and David Warner to open, followed by Kiwi captain Kane Williamson at three. Kohli comes in at four and is followed by former Aussie captain Steve Smith at five.
Former Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara takes the gloves and comes in at six. Ben Stokes gets slotted in at seven followed by the four bowlers in R Ashwin, Dale Steyn and the English opening pair of James Anderson and Stuart Broad.
We think the ICC has done a great job with the first seven players but could have done better with the bowlers. Steyn and Anderson are going to be a handful in overseas conditions and can get the ball reversing in sub-continent conditions. However, Stuart Broad brings too much similarity in the attack, so we would swap him with the left arm pace of Mitchell Johnson.
R Ashwin will be our first choice of spinner when games are in the sub-continent but we would replace him with Nathan Lyon for overseas games. We would also have Steve Smith or Kane Williamson captain this test side as Kohli’s captaincy has question marks to it.
