The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced the team of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 with Brendon McCullum as its captain.
Brendon McCullum was praised by one and all for his aggressive captaincy throughout the tournament. Brendon McCullum also scored 328 runs in nine matches with four half-centuries at a strike-rate of 188.50.
In addition to McCullum, the side includes four New Zealanders – Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Martin Guptill, Daniel Vettori – three Australians in Glenn Maxwell, Steven Smith and Mitchell Starc, two South Africans, AB de Villiers and Morne Morkel, with Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara as wicketkeeper-batsman.
ICC General Manager – Cricket, Geoff Allardice, chairman of the panel, said:
“The panel had an extremely difficult choice of selecting a 12-member squad at the back of an outstanding tournament, highlighted by some eye-catching individual performances including two double-centuries, 38 centuries, two hat-tricks and 28 four-wicket hauls.
“There were a number of other players that were discussed as possible selections in the team. These included batsmen Mahmudullah (Bangladesh) and Shaiman Anwar (UAE), fast bowlers Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shami (both India), Wahab Riaz (Pakistan) and spinners Imran Tahir (South Africa) and R.Ashwin (India).
“But there were so many brilliant individual performances during the tournament that it was not possible to fit them into the team. The panel eventually came up with this side, which, in their view, was the most balanced outfit that is capable of beating any side on any given day.”
Team of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015:
Martin Guptill (New Zealand)
Brendon McCullum (New Zealand (captain)
Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) (wicketkeeper)
Steven Smith (Australia)
AB de Villiers (South Africa)
Glenn Maxwell (Australia)
Corey Anderson (New Zealand)
Daniel Vettori (New Zealand)
Mitchell Starc (Australia)
Trent Boult (New Zealand)
Morne Morkel (South Africa)
Brendan Taylor (Zimbabwe) (12th man)
