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Harsha Bhogle picks his ODI XI for 2017

Chaithanya Sagar
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It has been memorable year for cricket fans, with so many terrific performances coming to fore in the International circuit. The Champions Trophy was the only world event this year, which saw Pakistan cricket at its unpredictable best, dishing out a superlative performance in the final to oust favourites and arch rivals, India.

Harsha Bhogle, in his new video podcast series with Cricbuzz, came up with his ODI XI for the year.

Five Indian players, Two England players, one player from South Africa, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan made the cut.

Bhogle made it very clear at the start of the video that he wouldn’t play players out of their position, just to incorporate all the ‘best’ players in the world, as he wouldn’t want his team to have players who would be forced to play outside of their comfort zone.

Harsha Bhogle picks Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan as the viable openers as the productive pair has done justice in providing fantastic starts to the Indian team right through the year.

Virat Kohli slotted in as number 3, being the obvious choice after the stellar season he had with bat in the ODI format.

Bhogle was in a huge fix with respect to the number 4 slot, with ABD and Babar Azam being the favourites, but he ultimately went in with ABD, for his average and strike rate have been just phenomenal this year

MS Dhoni is by far the best wicketkeeper-batsman to have ever graced the sport. The experienced campaigner makes the cut in Harsha Bhogle’s side, just tipping Quinton De Kock, as de Kock has made all his runs at the top of the order.

As far as the all-rounder role is concerned, Harsha went in with the experience of Ben Stokes and Shakib Al Hasan, and ended up leaving out both Moeen Ali and the resurgent Hardik Pandya.

Wrist spinners have had a splendid time in International cricket for the past year or so, and Bhogle was hell-bent on getting at least one of them into his side. There was a straight toss up between Rashid Khan and Yuzvendra Chahal, and Rashid’s splendid record worked in his favour.

The pace battery of Liam Plunkett, Jasprit Bumrah and Hasan Ali have been sharp and incisive enough to pick wickets in crunch situations for their respective sides.

Check out the video(for all the statistics involved with the team selection):

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Harsha’s pick:

Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (C), AB de Villiers, MS Dhoni (wk), Ben Stokes, Shakib Al Hasan, Rashid Khan, Liam Plunkett, Jasprit Bumrah, Hasan Ali

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