5 players in the 2023 World Cup with most appearances in the ODI showpiece ft. Virat Kohli
The ICC 2023 World Cup is around the corner, with India set to host a total of 48 matches, including the semifinals and final, in the 13th edition of the tournament.
The finalists of the previous edition of the World Cup, England and New Zealand, will kick off the first match on October 5 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
All 10 participating teams have announced their squads, with a few of them having a mixture of experienced and youth players. More than 30 players have the golden opportunity to play in their first World Cup for their respective countries.
Former Australian batter Ricky Ponting, who holds the best win percentage (89.65) as captain in the World Cup, also has the most appearances by an individual player in the quadrennial showpiece. Ponting played 46 World Cup matches for Australia across five competitions from 1999 to 2011.
With 45 appearances in six different events, legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was just one game short of Ponting’s tally.
Let’s take a look at the present participating players in the 2023 World Cup with the most matches before the upcoming edition starts.
5 players with the most World Cup matches in the 2023 edition
#5 Trent Boult - 19
The New Zealand fast bowler has cemented his spot in the 15-member squad of the Black Caps for the 2023 World Cup despite not being a centrally contracted player with New Zealand Cricket.
Boult made his debut in the marquee event in 2015, and from then on, the left-arm quick has been an integral member of New Zealand's back-to-back World Cup final appearances.
With 22 wickets in nine matches at 16.86, the New Zealand speedster was the joint-highest wicket-taker of the 2015 World Cup, along with Mitchell Starc.
During the 2019 edition in England and Wales, Boult surpassed Jacob Oram’s tally of 36 wickets to become the leading wicket-getter for the Black Caps in World Cup history.
The 34-year-old has accounted for 39 dismissals in 19 matches at an average of 21.19, with his best bowling figures being 5/27.
#4 Kane Williamson - 23
Although Kane Williamson’s participation in the complete 2023 World Cup event is inconvenient, the New Zealand skipper will enter the quadrennial event as the country’s most-capped player in this edition.
The iconic New Zealand batter suffered a knee injury during the IPL 2023 in India and subsequently went through a rehabilitation process. He will miss the tournament opener against defending champions England as his rehabilitation period continues.
Williamson has the opportunity to become the third New Zealand batter to complete 1000 runs in the World Cup, only after the likes of Stephen Fleming (1075) and Ross Taylor (1002).
With 911 runs in 22 innings at an average of 56.93, Williamson is the Black Caps’ fourth-most run scorer in the World Cups.
#3 Steve Smith - 24
Steven Smith started his World Cup journey back in 2011 with the contest jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.
Smith featured in Australia's six Group A matches, scoring 53 runs in three innings while batting in the lower-middle order and returning with a single wicket. He was eventually dropped from the Australian side in their quarterfinal clash against India.
Nevertheless, Smith finished as Australia’s leading run-scorer in the 2015 World Cup with 402 runs in seven innings at an average of 67 with the help of four half-centuries and a solitary century.
The Australia No. 3’s 105 against India in the second semifinal was the impetus for the eventual champions to outwit the title favorites.
Smith, the vice captain of Australia in this edition, has the most appearances in the Pat Cummins-led squad, having featured in 24 matches in the previous three tournaments.
He is just 166 runs away from completing 1000 runs in the World Cup, which will make him only the fourth Australian player to accomplish the task.
#2 Virat Kohli - 26
Virat Kohli is the only player from the present 15-member India squad to feature in three World Cup editions.
He is the only member who was part of the 2011 victorious World Cup team in the Rohit Sharma-led side in the 2023 edition, which the Men in Blue will play on home soil.
If Virat Kohli happens to play India’s all nine round-robin fixtures, then he will leapfrog Javagal Srinath to the second spot in the list of most World Cup matches for India.
At the age of 22, Kohli became the first Indian player to register a World Cup century on his debut against Bangladesh on February 19, 2011, in Mirpur.
The former Indian skipper has accumulated 1030 runs in 26 innings across three editions of the World Cup, including six half-centuries and a couple of hundreds.
He will be the lynchpin of the Indian batting order, with the team eyeing their first major ICC title after a decade.
#1 Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim - 29
The Bangladesh duo of Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim started their journey at the mega event in 2007, and most certainly they are likely to end it together this year.
Shakib has already indicated that this will be their last participation in an ODI World Cup tournament, while there is no word from Mushfiqure about the same.
Interestingly, the trio of Shakib, Mushfiqur, and Tamim Iqbal have been part of Bangladesh’s playing XI in all 29 matches held between the 2007 and 2019 World Cups.
However, Tamim Iqbal was excluded from Bangladesh’s finalized 15-member squad due to injury concerns and hence won’t join the other two senior players in the showpiece event in India.
All-rounder Shakib Al Hasan (1146) is the leading run scorer in Bangladesh and the only player from the country to score more than 1000 World Cup runs.
With 877 runs in 28 innings, Mushfiqur has the opportunity to join Shakib on the elite list. Shakib replaced Tamim as Bangladesh’s ODI captain after the latter stepped down from the role in August.