Not one Australian men’s player has made the T20 team of 2023 selected by the International Cricket Council (ICC) but four women have been selected, reflecting the team’s success in the T20 World Cup in February.
Ash Gardner, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry and Megan Schutt were picked in the ICC XI, Mooney being given the gloves.
Besides the World Cup success Australia won bilateral series against Pakistan, Ireland, West Indies and India, their only failure being a 2-1 T20 series defeat in England.
Alongside the Australian quartet were seven players familiar to WBBL fans: England duo Sophie Ecclestone and Nat Sciver-Brunt, New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr, West Indies’ Hayley Matthews, India’s Deepti Sharma, South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt and Chamari Athapathu, of Sri Lanka, who was made captain.
Seven nationalities were selected for the ICC men’s XI, but not one Australian. During the year Australia only played two bilateral series, losing 4-1 in India but winning 3-0 in South Africa.
Four Indian players made the XI: Yashavi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi and Arshdeep Singh.
There were also two Zimbabweans (Sikandar Raza, Richard Ngarava), and one each from England (Phil Salt), West Indies (Nicolas Pooran), New Zealand, (Mark Chapman), Ireland (Mark Adair) and Uganda – Alpesh Ramjani who took 55 wickets in the year.
JamesH
Roar Guru
Most of the Aussie men didn't play enough T20 Internationals to be considered. Behrendorff was probably our best player with 8 wickets from 5 matches at 16.5, and an economy of 6.6.