2023 ODI World Cup: Best Tournament XI Pt. 2

I’m pretty delayed in finishing this off but the day job is the day job. As a reminder, here are the first six I’ve picked for my 2023 World Cup Team of the Tournament:

Quinton de Kock (SA)
Travis Head (AUS)
Virat Kohli (IND)
Daryl Mitchell (NZ)
Heinrich Klaasen (SA)
Glenn Maxwell (AUS)

In terms of flexibility, there’s two wicket-keepers in there as well as three handy bowling options in Glenn Maxwell, Travis Head, and Daryl Mitchell. All six are all plus fielders as well. So far, so good. Let’s finish off the XI.

As a reminder, P1 = Overs 0.1-10, P2 = Overs 10.1-40, P3 = Overs 40.1-50.

As a quick aside, in my analysis of India’s tournament I criticized the lack of batting ability in the lower order relative to Australia. When looking at this table, I hope you see the batting capabilities in lower orders beyond Australia as well. Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc took turns at No. 8 for Australia but beyond that there are players like Rashid Khan for Afghanistan, Mitchell Santner for New Zealand, Chris Woakes for England, and Keshav Maharaj for South Africa. Shaheen Shah Afridi narrowly missed the cut but he averaged 18.33 at a strike rate of 92 during the tournament at No. 8 while Gerald Coetzee was another South African option who contributed over 50 runs in five innings. Some batting quality at No. 8 is a requirement in modern white ball cricket and it’s why India rotated between Shardul Thakur and Ravichandran Ashwin early in the tournament.

So, for me, No. 7 should ideally be an all-round talent while No. 8 should be able to contribute with the bat even if their primary skill is with the ball. We know what the best batters in those positions look like, now let’s consider the bowling options:

Econ = Runs conceded per over, Avg = runs conceded per wicket, SR = balls bowled per wicket

What are you looking at? Let me explain. As you can tell from the first part of this Tournament XI selection, I don’t like assessing players in the traditional way. The same way I break down performance into the different phases for batters, I have done the same for bowlers. USG refers to how much a captain/team uses a particular bowler over the course of a match, and then I’ve split a bowler’s economy, average, and strike rate into the different phases as well to better understand their respective strengths and weaknesses. Highlighted in red is the lowest in a category and the highest in a category is in green. For usage, this shouldn’t be viewed as a bad thing as, again, that stat just shows how a player’s overs were distributed over the course of 50 overs.

Looking at the chart above, we see Jasprit Bumrah as the clear standout opening bowler because he has skills that make him exceedingly effective beyond the P1 phase as well. For example, Marco Jansen was tremendous in consistently providing South Africa early breakthroughs but went for plenty of runs in the P2 and P3 phase. Lungi Ngidi didn’t take wickets early but no one was more economical than him in the P2 phase while only Dilshan Madushanka and Shaheen Shah Afridi took more wickets. Bumrah has unbelievable economy rate of 3.25 to along with a solid seven wickets in P1, doesn’t get used too much in P2 but is economical once again and has provided breakthroughs, and then is dominant in P3 with nine wickets at an economy rate of 5.00.

Bumrah is a must in my side, but who best complements him? Is it Josh Hazlewood who gives you a very similar effect that you can double down on? Marco Jansen with his aggressive wicket pursuit? Let’s come back to this. For now, let’s look at who the middle-overs specialists should be.

No prizes for guessing but Mohammed Shami is the man who stands out here. Take a bow, Gerald Coetzee for the excellent wicket rate through the middle overs, but I did rate Kagiso Rabada slightly higher as he was the prototypical lead pace bowler in this phase creating all the pressure with an excellent economy rate of 4.12 and allowing for Coetzee to gobble up the wickets. You can also see just how bad a tournament Haris Rauf had for Pakistan and really hamstrung their chances. With Shami being the automatic pick here, it means I have No. 10 and No. 11 level batters in Bumrah and Shami.

Going back to my opening bowler choice, it now clarifies that I definitely need someone with batting ability but can also afford to have someone who isn’t necessarily a middle over specialist since that’s where Shami excels and likely the spinner I pick as well. That makes Jansen the best choice in my eyes. Let’s move to the spin options.

Considering that Adam Zampa’s first two combined match figures read 18-0-123-1, it is remarkable that he finished as arguably the tournament’s best spinner. Keshav Maharaj certainly gives him a run for his money with his outstanding middle-over bowling, but I give the edge to Zampa because he could also be relied on more than any other spinner at the death and was quite effective.

Some of you might wonder why I have Rashid Khan so high up the list and that comes down to recognizing the quality of his bowling during the matches, the number of dropped catches off his bowling, recognizing that Afghanistan was one of the worst fielding sides in the tournament, and still only went for 4.45 runs in P2 and 4.74 runs in P3, and still took 11 wickets in nine matches.

In the semifinal and final, Kuldeep Yadav underwhelmed with combined figures of 20-0-112-1. Jadeja’s role is to contain and he did that superbly as indicated by his stellar economy rate. He still finished with one more wicket than Yadav, the one viewed as the primary wicket taker. There’s certainly a case to be made that Shami took wickets before anyone else could, but Yadav should be disappointed in his strike rate of a wicket every 47 balls even if he was economical.

While Glenn Maxwell has several reds to his name, he deserves a lot of credit for having an economy rate of 4.55 in P1 and 4.59 in P2 while bowling 65 overs in those phases. The five wickets are gravy. That is huge production with the ball from your No. 6.

I’m going with Zampa as my spinner which now leaves me with Jansen, Zampa, Shami, and Bumrah. One spot remaining. Ravindra Jadeja would be an excellent complement to Zampa while beefing up the batting and providing another great fielder in the side, Maharaj would be a great bet as a premium spinner who can bat a fair bit. Gerald Coetzee and Kagiso Rabada are both really strong pace options for the middle overs and death while also not being mugs with the bat.

While he didn’t have an outstanding tournament with the ball, he was magnificent in the final and his captaincy was the best in the tournament. To out-tactic India in India is perhaps the most impressive thing you can do. Give me Pat Cummins.

There’s my XI: Quinton de Kock (wk), Travis Head, Virat Kohli, Daryl Mitchell, Heinrich Klaasen, Glenn Maxwell, Marco Jansen, Pat Cummins, Adam Zampa, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.

If you want a 12th man, give me Jadeja.

Toughest omissions: Rohit Sharma, Rachin Ravindra, David Miller, Ravindra Jadeja, Rashid Khan, Josh Hazlewood.

That marks the end of my 2023 ODI World Cup coverage. Onwards and upwards.