New Delhi: The legendary Mahendra Singh Dhoni was on Sunday named captain of ICC’s ODI and T20 International teams of the decade while Virat Kohli stamped his pre-eminence in world cricket after being voted the skipper of the Test team.
Indians dominated the limited-over teams by having three and four players in the ODI and T20I respectively while England have maximum number of players — four — in the Test side. The 39-year-old Dhoni, who retired from international cricket earlier this year, was one of the three Indians in the ODI team of the decade, the others being Rohit Sharma and skipper Virat Kohli.
Dhoni has three other compatriots in the T20I team — Rohit, Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah. Besides being named captain of Test team, Kohli is the only player in the world to have been voted in the teams of the decade in all formats. The teams of the decades were announced by the ICC ahead of the Awards of the Decade ceremony, to be held in virtual mode on Monday.
The top awards, including ICC male cricketer as well as female cricketer of the decade, men’s Test, ODI and T20I cricketers of the decade, women’s ODI and T20I cricketers of the decade, will also be announced on Monday. Kohli is also in the running for four awards — ICC male cricketer of the decade, men’s Test cricketer, men’s ODI cricketer and men’s T20I cricketer of the decade.
In the Test team of the decade, senior spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is the other Indian while the four Englishmen are Alastair Cook, Ben Stokes, Stuart Broad and James Anderson. Australia are represented by Steve Smith and David Warner. New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, former Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara and South African fast bowler Dale Steyn complete the Test team of the decade.
India has the maximum number of players in the ODI team of the decade with Australia (Warner and Mitchell Starc) and South Africa (AB de Villiers and Imran Tahir) having two each. England is represented by Ben Stokes while New Zealand has fast bowler Trent Boult. Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib al-Hasan and Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga are the other players.
Indian also dominated the T20I team of the decade with four players in it. West Indies has two in Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard while Australia also has the same number of players in Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell. South African legend de Villiers and Sri Lankan Malinga also find place in the shortest format while star Afghan spinner Rashid Khan was also picked.
Among women, Harmanpreet Kaur and Poonam Yadav made it to the T20I team of the decade while Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami were picked for the ODI team. The ICC Awards of the Decade that recognise the best players across cricket over the past 10 years invited fans to vote for the first time. More than 1.5 million fans from across the globe participated, casting 5.3 million votes. The nominees for each of the categories have been determined by the Awards Nominations Committee according to on-field performances and overall achievements for at least five years during the period, the ICC said.