Sportskeeda Cricket Awards 2017: Top 5 ODI captains of the year
In a year when Test cricket was going through an identity crisis and a blasphemous format such as T10 was introduced, 50-overs cricket continued to quietly survive like the intermediate sibling in a family, showering love with the odd treats, like the Champions Trophy.
The 2019 World Cup is less than a year and a half away, and each side has identified the core set of players who'll line up to be part of the preliminary squads. With the squads, each nation has identified the men who'll lead the sides out in the months leading up to the tournament.
Here are five of the best ODI captains of the year gone by:
#5 Kane Williamson
In his autobiography, Brendon McCullum, Kane Williamson's predecessor wrote that he had used T20 captaincy to experiment in Tests: his way of handling captaincy was clearly unique. While Baz breathed life into a laconic New Zealand outfit with his firebrand captaincy, Williamson is cut from finer cloth. A thinking captain, he is known to be astute with his field placements and bowling changes.
While percentage-wise, New Zealand were the third most successful ODI side this year, 2017 was a mixed bag for the Blackcaps. They started on the right note, cleaning up the series against Australia in January, but lost out to South Africa 3-2 in a closely-fought series thereafter.
The preparation for the Champions Trophy was ideal, as they clinched the tri-series (Bangladesh and Ireland) without breaking a sweat, but stumbled in the ICC tournament, bowing out in the group stages.
The India series got off to a perfect start, as they managed to flatten the hosts in the first ODI (courtesy Tom Latham) to take a lead, but were yanked out of their dream when they suffered back-to-back defeats thereafter. A three-nil win over a hapless West Indian outfit helped them end 2017 on a good note.