By BV Swagath
MS Dhoni has been named as the Captain of the Team of the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 by the International Cricket Council. The virtual team featuring the 12 best players of the tournament has as many as five Indian players – Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
England, the runners-up has two players in the team in Jonathan Trott and James Anderson while Joe Root was named as the 12th man. The team of the tournament was selected by a 5-man panel comprising of Geoff Allardice (ICC General Manager - Cricket, and Chairman Event Technical Committee), Javagal Srinath (former India fast bowler and ICC Emirates Elite Panel match referee), Aleem Dar (ICC Emirates Elite Panel umpire), Scyld Berry (Wisden Editor from 2008-2011 and Sunday Telegraph correspondent) and Stephen Brenkley (correspondent of The Independent and Independent On Sunday).
The ICC website has quoted Geoff Allardice saying that “It was an extremely difficult task for the panel to pick a team of 11 players from the quality of players who featured in this tournament. “As the selection criteria was the performance in the ICC Champions Trophy 2013, some of the best players had to be left out, though they would walk very easily into any World XI.
The side is a good mixture of specialists and all-rounders, and includes six in-form batsmen, including Dhoni as a wicketkeeper-batsman, a spinner in Jadeja, McLaren as an all-rounder and three most impressive fast bowlers of the tournament in Kumar, Anderson and McClenaghan.”
Team of the Tournament (in batting order):
• Shikhar Dhawan (India) -363 runs
• Jonathan Trott (England)-229 runs
• Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)-222 runs
• Virat Kohli (India)-176 runs
• Misbah-ul-Haq (Pakistan)-173 runs
• Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicket-keeper/captain) (India)- 27 runs, five catches and four stumpings
• Ravindra Jadeja (India)-12 wickets & 80 runs
• Ryan McLaren (South Africa)-83 runs & eight wickets
• Bhuvneshwar Kumar (India)- six wickets
• James Anderson (England)-11 wickets
• Mitchell McClenaghan (New Zealand)-11 wickets
• Joe Root (England)-173 runs
