No Indian in the McCullum-led World Cup XI

 Rohit Mahajan

Melbourne, March 30

Five men from losing finalists New Zealand, and only three from world champions Australia in the ICC’s team of the tournament — does this make any sense? It does. Australia’s win last night, and indeed their campaign to win their fifth World Cup title, didn’t depend on a few select individuals. The three Australian included in the ICC XI are fast bowler Mitchell Starc, batsman Steve Smith and allrounder Glenn Maxwell. The New Zealanders in the XI are Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum, Corey Anderson, Daniel Vettori and Trent Boult. McCullum was named the captain of the team. Interestingly, not a single Indian has made the squad. 

The selection of the XI of the tournament is not much more than hype, following on from similar XIs for different sports, such as football. But the selection does become an interesting talking point. For instance, the third and fourth most successful bowlers in the tournament are Indians — Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami. Mohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin took 13 wickets each. Among the batsmen, Shikhar Dhawan is the fifth-best in the World Cup; two others got over 300 runs. But they didn’t do enough to warrant selection into the XI. The only Asian to make the list was Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara. The left-hander was an automatic choice in view of his unprecedented four back-to-back hundreds. The Sri Lankan and AB de Villiers are the only two players from the 2011 World Cup XI to retain their places in the squad.

McCullum was named the captain. “McCullum was chosen as the captain following his aggressive, innovative and inspirational leadership during the 44-day tournament that was the cornerstone of his team’s progression to the final where it lost to Australia by seven wickets,” the ICC said in a statement. 

As a batsman, McCullum smashed the ball all round to make 328 runs in the nine matches played.

World’s best

We asked Mitchell Starc if he was the No. 1 bowler in the world. The Australians aren’t very good exponents of sheepishness; but Starc did it quite well when we asked him if he was the best bowler in the team. Now, Starc has been the best bowler in the World Cup. He’s considered the best bowler in the world right now. But he does not agree that he’s the best bowler in the Australian team. “No mate, I don’t think that I’m the best bowler in the Aussie XI,” said Starc. “It’s a complete team effort.”

Three Australians, five Kiwis in the World Cup XI

Brendon McCullum (NZ) (captain)

Runs: 328, Avg: 36.44, SR: 188.50

Martin Guptill (NZ) 

Runs: 547, 

Avg: 68.37, SR: 104.58, 100s: 2 

Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) (WK) 

Runs: 541, Avg: 108.20, 

SR: 105.87, 100s: 4, Catches: 5, Stumpings: 3 

Steven Smith (Australia)

Runs: 402, Avg: 67, SR: 91.57 100s: 1

AB de Villiers (South Africa)

Runs: 482, Avg: 96.40, 

SR: 144.31, 100s: 1 

Glenn Maxwell (Australia)

Runs: 324, Avg: 64.80, 

SR: 182.02, 100: 1, Wickets: 6, Eco: 5.73 

Corey Anderson (NZ)

Runs: 231, Avg: 33, SR: 108.45, Wkts: 14, Eco: 6.47

Daniel Vettori (NZ)

Wkts: 15, Avg: 20.46, Eco: 4.04

Mitchell Starc (Australia)

Wkts: 22, Avg: 10.18, Eco: 3.50

Trent Boult (NZ)

Wkts: 22, Avg: 16.86, Eco: 4.36

Morne Morkel (South Africa)

Wkts: 17, Avg: 17.58, Eco: 4.38

Brendan Taylor 

(Zimbabwe) (12th man) 

Runs: 433, Avg: 72.16, 

SR: 106.91, 100s: 2  

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McCullum was chosen as the captain following his aggressive, innovative and inspirational leadership that was the cornerstone of his team’s progression to the final. - ICC statement

No mate, I don’t think that I’m the best bowler in the Aussie XI. It’s a complete team effort. - Mitchell Starc