Nine Aussies named in ICC Teams of the Decade

27 Dec 2021 Laura Jolly

Australia's biggest names have claimed spots in the ICC's best teams of the past 10 years

Nine Australians have been recognised by the International Cricket Council by being named in the governing body's Teams of the Decade.

Australians feature prominently in the two women’s limited-overs Teams of the Decade, with Meg Lanning named captain of both the ODI and T20I XIs.

ICC Men's Test Team of the Decade

Alastair Cook (ENG), David Warner (AUS), Kane Williamson (NZ), Virat Kohli (c) (IND), Steve Smith (AUS), Kumar Sangakkara (wk) (SL), Ben Stokes (ENG), Ravichandran Ashwin (IND), Dale Steyn (SA), Stuart Broad (ENG), Jimmy Anderson (ENG)

ICC Women's ODI Team of the Decade

Alyssa Healy (AUS), Suzie Bates (NZ), Mithali Raj (IND), Meg Lanning (c) (AUS), Stafanie Taylor, Sarah Taylor (wk) (ENG), Ellyse Perry (AUS), Dane van Niekerk (SA), Marizanne Kapp (SA), Jhulan Goswami (IND), Anisa Mohammed (WI)

ICC Men's ODI Team of the Decade

Rohit Sharma (IND), David Warner (AUS), Virat Kohli (IND), AB de Villiers (SA), Shakib Al Hasan (BAN), MS Dhoni (c & wk) (IND), Ben Stokes (ENG), Mitchell Starc (AUS), Trent Boult (NZ), Imran Tahir (SA), Lasith Malinga (SL)

ICC Women's T20I Team of the Decade

Alyssa Healy (wk) (AUS), Sophie Devine (NZ), Suzie Bates (NZ), Meg Lanning (c) (AUS), Harmanpreet Kaur (IND), Stafanie Taylor (WI), Deandra Dottin (WI), Ellyse Perry (AUS), Anya Shrubsole (ENG), Megan Schutt (AUS), Poonam Yadav (IND)

ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade

Rohit Sharma (IND), Chris Gayle (WI), Aaron Finch (AUS), Virat Kohli (IND), AB de Villiers (SA), Glenn Maxwell (AUS), MS Dhoni (c & wk) (IND), Kieron Pollard (WI), Rashid Khan (AFG), Jasprit Bumrah (IND), Lasith Malinga (SL)

Superstar allrounder Ellyse Perry and keeper-batter Alyssa Healy also feature in both teams, while spearhead Megan Schutt has been included in the T20I side.

Two Australians also feature in each format for the men’s Teams of the Decade.

David Warner appears in both the men’s Test and ODI XIs, joined by Steve Smith in the red-ball team and Mitchell Starc in the ODI side.

Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell claimed spots in the men’s T20I team.

Indian MS Dhoni was named captain of both the ODI and T20 sides, while Virat Kohli - the only man named in all three teams - is skipper of the Test XI.

Smith falls just short of Boxing Day double

With a dearth of matches due to COVID19 putting paid to the usual Team of the Year awards, the ICC instead introduced a one-off edition of its annual awards programme, aimed at celebrating the stand-out performers and moments from the past ten years of international cricket.

Judges looked at performances between January 1, 2011 and October 7, 2020 when selecting the teams, and players needed to have made international appearances in the relevant format for at least five years throughout that period.

During that time, Lanning was peerless with the bat in ODIs, scoring 3,856 runs at 55.08 including 14 centuries, while she also topped the run-scoring in the shortest format of the game with 2,849 runs including two tons.

Megastar Lanning seals Rose Bowl with a century

Perry’s all-round dominance yielded 2621 ODI runs at 69 and 98 wickets at 25, while in T20Is, she struck 1155 runs and collected 89 wickets during the voting period.

Healy’s talent with the gloves has been a constant throughout her career, but it was in the second half of the decade that she took her batting to the elite level; of her 1,747 ODI runs during the voting period, 1,277 came since November 2017.

In T20Is, she was the most prolific keeper-bat across the 10-year period, striking 2017 runs including a world record 148no and executing 89 dismissals behind the stumps.

Record-breaker Healy smashes 148no

Only India’s Poonam Yadav took more T20I wickets than Schutt, who collected 93 scalps in 70 matches.

In 84 Tests during the voting period, Warner struck 7,244 runs at 48.94 with 24 centuries, including his epic 335 not out against Pakistan at Adelaide Oval last summer.

In the one-day format, he scored 5,349 runs in 121 matches, with 18 tons.

Full highlights: Warner's epic 335 not out

Smith was recognised in the Test side for his staggering average of 64.60, scoring 7042 runs across his 71 matches with 26 centuries.

Starc was the second highest wicket-taker in ODIs during the decade, taking 180 of them at 23.24 in 94 matches, although his tally is significantly fewer than the leader, Lasith Malinga, who claimed 230 wickets from 151 matches during the same period.

Starc's sweet six leads Aussie fightback

Finch claimed his spot in the T20 side thanks to his 2,149 runs at a strike rate of 154.05 in 66 matches, while Maxwell’s inclusion came thanks to a body of work that included 1,687 runs at a strike rate of 157.95 – the highest of the leading 50 run scorers during the decade – and three centuries.

The teams were selected by a committee comprising prominent cricket journalists and broadcasters from around the world, including Alison Mitchell, Ian Bishop, Natalie Germanos and Peter Lalor.

On Monday, the ICC will also announce the best players of the decade across all formats in men's and women's cricket, which has partly been determined by a fan vote.

ICC Men's Test Team of the Decade

ICC Women's ODI Team of the Decade

ICC Men's ODI Team of the Decade

ICC Women's T20I Team of the Decade

ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade