In a recent interview, former South African captain Hashim Amla named his best ever ODI XI. He chose three Indians, three South Africans, and two Australians for his lineup. The remaining three players came from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and the West Indies. No one from England or New Zealand made it into his squad.
Amla announced Sachin Tendulkar and Adam Gilchrist as his openers on Shubhankar Mishra’s YouTube program. Tendulkar is the leading run scorer in international cricket. Virat Kohli, who has the most centuries in ODI cricket, was selected his team’s No. 3 batter. In the middle order, Amla selected Brian Lara, AB de Villiers, and Jacques Kallis. They have collected 10,405, 9,577, and 11,579 runs in the format, respectively. Kallis also took 273 wickets with his medium-paced bowling.
Former Indians captain and legendary wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni was also picked to the playing XI.
He has scored the second-most runs as a wicketkeeper in the format, trailing only Kumar Sangakkara.
Amla’s bowling lineup included two spinners and as many seamers. Muttiah Muralitharan, the top wicket-taker in international cricket, and Shane Warne were picked as the team’s spinners. Wasim Akram and Dale Steyn were teamed for seam bowling. While the former holds the record for most ODI wickets by a Pakistani bowler, the later has 194 in his career.
Amla is a champion batsman, having scored 9282 runs in 124 Tests and 8113 runs in 181 One-Day Internationals. He was also a strong performer in the Twenty20 International circuit, scoring 1277 runs in 44 appearances. He also has two century and three fifties from 16 Indian Premier League (IPL) games. Amla resigned from international cricket in August 2019, after the ODI World Cup.
Hashim Amla’s all-time ODI XI: Sachin Tendulkar, Adam Gilchrist, Virat Kohli, Brian Lara, AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, MS Dhoni, Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne, Wasim Akram, and Dale Steyn.
India
