Hey MS, who picked this team?: Wasim Jaffer trolls ICC for picking only three frontline bowlers in the T20I team of the decade
The ICC awards for the decade were announced on Sunday. Along with the teams for the Test and ODI formats, players in the T20I team of the decade was also revealed.
Former India opener Wasim Jaffer, however, pointed out a major flaw in the XI chosen as the ICC T20I team of the decade. While the playing XI, captained by MS Dhoni, has some big names like Rohit Sharma, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers in the batting department, only three frontline bowlers were chosen as part of the team.
The bowlers were Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan, India seamer Jasprit Bumrah and Sri Lanka pacer Lasith Malinga.
Using Twitter, Wasim Jaffer decided to troll ICC for this oversight. In an inimitable manner, he questioned:
“Only 3 frontline bowlers?! "Hey MS, who picked this team?"
The funny post was accompanied by an image of MS Dhoni holding a mike and the words ‘definitely bot’ written under it, to make it seem as if it was the former’s captain’s response.
What’s wrong with having only three frontline bowlers in the ICC T20I team of the decade?
While the XI players chosen will, in reality, not play in any game, combined teams are always picked keeping team balance in mind. Therefore, they must include the right mix of batsmen, bowlers and all-rounders.
In the case of the ICC T20I team of the decade, apart from the three frontline bowlers, Kieron Pollard and Glenn Maxwell are part-time bowlers. As such, they cannot be expected to bowl the allotted four overs for a bowler.
In other words, the ICC T20I team of the decade will struggle to get in the stipulated 20 overs with the team that has been chosen. Apart from Wasim Jaffer, another former Indian opener and analyst Aakash Chopra also questioned the logic of selecting only three proper bowlers in the ICC T20I team of the decade.
Taking a dig at ICC, Aakash Chopra tweeted:
“Dhoni will refuse to lead a team with only 3 proper bowlers.”
The ICC T20I team of the decade is as follows:
Rohit Sharma, Chris Gayle, Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, MS Dhoni (captain), Kieron Pollard, Rashid Khan, Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga