Today’s twist:
Create an All-time XI with the twist that you can pick only one player from each World Cup. Since we have 12 world cups to choose from, we will create a XI with a 12th player. There are multiple players who have shined in each of cricket’s finest ODI tournament, but who do you pick-the best batsman, bowler, player of the series, or the inspirational captain?
The catch:
How would you go about choosing between Martin Crowe and Wasim Akram in ’92, Lance Klusener and Shane Warne in ’99, or more recently between Kane Williamson, Rohit Sharma, Mitchell Starc, and the infallible Ben Stokes in 2019? Whatever it is, this is bound to be a fun ride.
Before we reveal our XI, let’s refresh our memory with relevant statistics regarding the highest run-scorer, wicket taker, player of the series, and captain of the winning team from each cricket world cup.
World Cup – Year | Most runs (runs scored) | Most Wickets (wickets taken) | Player of the series | Winning Captain |
1975 | Glenn Turner (333) | Gary Gilmour (11) | N/A | Clive Lloyd |
1979 | Gordon Greenidge (253) | Mike Hendrick (10) | N/A | Clive Lloyd |
1983 | David Gower (384) | Roger Binny, Ashantha de Mel (18) | N/A | Kapil Dev |
1987 | Graham Gooch (471) | Craig McDermott (18) | N/A | Allan Border |
1992 | Martin Crowe (456) | Wasim Akram (18) | Martin Crowe | Imran Khan |
1996 | Sachin Tendulkar (523) | Anil Kumble (15) | Sanath Jayasuriya | Arjuna Ranatunga |
1999 | Rahul Dravid (461) | Geoff Allott, Shane Warne (20) | Lance Klusener | Steve Waugh |
2003 | Sachin Tendulkar (461) | Chaminda Vaas (23) | Sachin Tendulkar | Ricky Ponting |
2007 | Matthew Hayden (659) | Glenn McGrath (26) | Glenn McGrath | Ricky Ponting |
2011 | Tillakarante Dilshan (500) | Shahid Afridi, Zaheer Khan (21) | Yuvraj Singh | Mahendra Singh Dhoni |
2015 | Martin Guptill (547) | Mitchell Starc, Trent Boult (22) | Mitchell Starc | Michael Clarke |
2019 | Rohit Sharma (648) | Mitchell Starc (27) | Kane Williamson | Eoin Morgan |
Our All Time XI:
- Graham Gooch (1987)
- Sachin Tendulkar (2003)
- Kane Williamson (2019)
- Martin Crowe (1992)
- MS Dhoni (2011) – WK
- Clive Lloyd (1979) – Captain
- Arjuna Ranatunga (1996)
- Lance Klusener (1999)
- Kapil Dev (1983)
- Mitchell Starc (2015)
- Glenn McGrath (2007)
- Glenn Turner (1975)
Honorable Mentions: Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Wasim Akram, Kumar Sangakkara (most World Cup dismissals and 4 centuries in 2015)
Note, we chose MS Dhoni at the expense of Yuvraj Singh in order to have a wicket-keeper in the side. We decided not to factor great finals’ innings like Ben Stokes in 2019 and Adam Gilchrist in 2017…’Great World Cup Innings’ would have to wait till a later post.
In any case, choosing from the great 1975-1983 West Indian and 1999-2015 Australian sides was always going to be a difficult task anyway…
Agree? Disagree? In any case, let us know in the comments below what your ideal Cricket World Cup XI would be.
For more articles in our series World XIs – With Twists, check this page out!
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This is probably the best, very informative, knowledge and for giving your readers an opportunity to get involved. Thanks a lot.