ESPNCricinfo names teams of the year

our West Indies players were included as ESPNcricinfo named its teams of the year for 2024 on Monday. Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell, Sherfane Rutherford, and the lone women’s player, Hayley Matthews, all made the cut.

 

The year’s headline events – the men’s and women’s T20 World Cups – saw ball dominate bat, and as a result, two bowling stars each from the championship-winning teams make the T20 XIs: Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh for India, Amelia Kerr and Rosemary Mair for New Zealand.

 

Over 1600 men’s T20s were played in 2024. Pooran was the year’s top run-getter by some distance, and he struck at nearly 160. Andre Russell’s sustained all-round chops also found him many takers. Bumrah, Singh, and Tilak Varma represent India.

 

South Africa’s Heinrich Klaasen and Tristan Stubbs, Australia’s Travis Head, England’s Phil Salt, Sri Lanka’s Matheesha Pathirana,  Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan complete a cosmopolitan lineup.

 

In addition to being the year’s top run-getter and joint second-highest wicket-taker, Matthews also led West Indies to the World Cup semifinal and Barbados Royals to the WCPL title, while also stepping in as captain briefly for WBBL champions Melbourne Renegades – which makes her the captain of the Cricinfo team.

 

The player of the final and player of the tournament at the Women’s T20 World Cup, and the leading wicket-taker of the year, Kerr was one of three near ever-presents in the voting for the women’s T20 XI, alongside England’s Sophie Ecclestone and Australia’s Ellyse Perry.

 

Laura Wolvaardt, Marizanne Kapp, and Shabnim Ismail (South Africa), Beth Mooney (Australia), Nat Sciver-Brunt (England), (South Africa), Deepti Sharma (India), and Mair are all included.

 

Seven players in the men’s ODI XI come from either Sri Lanka or Afghanistan, who, along with West Indies, were the only Full-Member teams to play 12 or more matches this year. The Sri Lankans are Wanindu Hasaranga, Kusal Mendis, Pathum Nissanka, and Charith Asalanka. Afghanistan has Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Azmatullah Omarzai, and Mohammad Nabi.

 

West Indies middle-order batter Rutherford and England’s Liam Livingstone are joined by Bangladesh’s Taskin Ahmed and Pakistan’s Haris Rauf.

 

Bumrah was one of two unanimous choices for the men’s Test XI, as voted for by ESPNcricinfo staff, alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal, who laced his first full year in international cricket with two double-centuries against England and 161 in Perth, all in wins.

 

Ravindra Jadeja joins his India team-mates as the spin-bowling allrounder, with Englishmen Joe Root, Ben Duckett, Harry Brook, and Jamie Smith, New Zealanders Rachin Ravindra and Matt Henry, Sri Lanka’s Kamindu Mendis, and Australia’s Josh Hazlewood.

(ESPNCricinfo)