Picking the best playing 11 from Week 1 of the 2023 World Cup ft. Mohammad Rizwan and KL Rahul
The first week of the 2023 World Cup has drawn to a close and the results have largely been along expected lines.
Although most pundits would have expected defending champions England to thwart New Zealand in the curtain-raiser, they were subjected to a shellacking instead. There have been no real upsets as such, with the Blackcaps, India, and Pakistan winning their first two matches.
England and Bangladesh have won and lost a game apiece while the Netherlands, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka remain winless after their first two matches. Australia and South Africa have played a solitary game so far, with the former going down to India and the Proteas starting with a resounding win over Sri Lanka.
The opening week of the 2023 World Cup was headlined by plenty of runs and stellar batting displays. The bowlers had their say as well of course but it was incredibly hard to zero in on the best batting performances in particular that complicated this attempt at picking the best playing XI from this period.
A massive disclaimer - it was a hair-pulling task but we've narrowed it down to what we reckon is the best XI from the week gone by. There are a number of unfortunate omissions but let's look at the players who have made the cut first.
Openers: Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra
The duo that set the tone in the opening fixture of the 2023 World Cup headline this team's opening combination. Rachin Ravindra batted at No. 3 of course, but his stunning unbeaten 273-run partnership with Devon Conway blew England to smithereens.
While Conway remained unbeaten on 152, Ravindra scored 123 seamless runs, before backing it up with knocks of 32 and 51, respectively, against the Netherlands.
Ravindra also offers a bowling option, having picked up two wickets across the two games with his left-arm spin.
Middle order: Kusal Mendis, Aiden Markram (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), and KL Rahul
Three wicketkeeping options headline a solid middle order that delivered some of the most iconic knocks of the week gone by at the 2023 World Cup.
Kusal Mendis was in blistering touch, smashing a 42-ball 76 against South Africa before following it up with a 122-run knock against Pakistan, marking the fastest century by a Sri Lankan in ODI World Cups.
The record for the fastest overall though was broken by Aiden Markram as he took just 49 deliveries to get there while decimating a toothless Sri Lankan bowling attack in Delhi.
Wicketkeeper-batters Mohammad Rizwan and KL Rahul stepped up brilliantly under pressure to ensure Pakistan and India would get off to winning starts. Rizwan rescued the Men in Green with a 75-ball 68 against the Netherlands before his unbeaten 131 helped them ace the highest successful run chase in World Cup history as Sri Lanka suffered the wrath of it.
Rahul, meanwhile, produced arguably his best ODI innings through the course of his unbeaten 97 against Australia, having walked out to bat in the second over after keeping wickets in the torrid heat and humidity of Chennai. His partnership with Virat Kohli saw India vault themselves from 2/3 to start their 2023 World Cup campaign on a winning note.
All-rounders: Bas de Leede and Mitchell Santner
Bas de Leede picked up from where he left off at the World Cup Qualifiers with a stupendous all-round display against Pakistan. He backed up a four-wicket haul with a sublime 68-ball 67 that put the Netherlands on course to scale their target of 287 before his wicket saw the innings come apart.
De Leede didn't have the best of outings against the Blackcaps but he was comfortably the best seam-bowling all-rounder on display in the opening week of the 2023 World Cup.
Mitchell Santner, on the other hand, continued to enhance his reputation as a phenomenal white-ball bowler with miserly returns of 2/37 against England and a five-fer against the Dutch. He also made an invaluable contribution with the bat in the second of those games as his unbeaten 17-ball 36 batted the Netherlands out of the contest.
At the end of Week 1 of the 2023 World Cup, Santner is the leading wicket-taker with seven scalps to his name.
Bowlers: Hasan Ali, Matt Henry, and Jasprit Bumrah
Three fast-bowlers who have each snared six wickets from two matches round off this playing XI, with Hasan Ali, Matt Henry, and Jasprit Bumrah all enjoying a superb start to the 2023 World Cup.
Hasan, who was picked in Pakistan's squad on the back of an injury to Naseem Shah, has stepped up admirably. After picking up 2/33 off seven overs against the Netherlands, he returned with figures of 4/71 against Sri Lanka. Don't read much into that economy rate, for it was Hasan who removed both Kusal Mendis and fellow centurion Sadeera Samarawickrama to ensure Pakistan weren't chasing more than 345.
Henry, meanwhile, picked up the first wicket of the competition as he got Dawid Malan to nick behind. He hasn't looked back since, snaring three wickets apiece in his two outings thus far to show the way for New Zealand.
As for Bumrah, he has been next to unplayable across phases even on surfaces that haven't been a fast bowler's best friend by any means. Reiterating just why he is the most complete seamer on the planet today, he bagged 2/35 against Australia and followed it up with a sensational spell of 4/39 against Afghanistan as India won both their opening matches.
Honorable mentions
As mentioned earlier, pruning down the best performances into just eleven players was a near-impossible task owing to the number of stellar displays on show in the first week of the 2023 World Cup.
It's only fair that we acknowledge those performances and give them their due. Starting with Virat Kohli, who was at it again in a crunch situation against Australia, stroking his way to 85 before scoring an unbeaten half-century against Afghanistan.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma might have registered a duck against the Aussies, but he was near unstoppable as Afghanistan's bowlers bore the wrath of a masterful 131.
Saud Shakeel's 52-ball 68 against the Netherlands deserves a mention too, considering that Pakistan were reeling at 38/3 and were in danger of their batting innings derailing.
Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dawid Malan, and Abdullah Shafique all struck pristine centuries of their own even as Joe Root hit the ground running with twin half-centuries.
On the bowling front, Reece Topley showed England what they were missing against the Blackcaps, marking his debut in the tournament with a four-fer against Bangladesh. Mehidy Hasan Miraz enjoyed a superb all-round performance against Afghanistan while Australia found Ravindra Jadeja nearly unplayable.
This was the hallmark of the opening week of the 2023 World Cup - an array of top-class performances to the extent that we could have two separate playing XIs. Quite a start to the tournament, isn't it?
Best playing 11 from Week 1 of the 2023 World Cup: Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Kusal Mendis, Aiden Markram (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), KL Rahul, Bas de Leede, Mitchell Santner, Hasan Ali, Matt Henry, Jasprit Bumrah.
Who would you have in your best playing 11 from the opening week of the 2023 World Cup? Have your say in the comments section below!