<p class="x_x_x_news-body" style="text-align:justify"><strong>ICC selects Mahendra Singh Dhoni to captain ODI team of the year - Cricket News Update</strong></p>
<p class="x_x_x_news-body" style="text-align:justify">India’s World Cup winning captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has been selected as the captain International Cricket Council's (ICC) ODI team, whose playing XI were announced in the ceremony held in London.</p>
<p class="x_x_x_news-body" style="text-align:justify">The ODI team of the year has four players from the 2011 World Cup winning team, India. Sri Lanka, the runner-ups of the mega event, have three representatives while South Africa has two. Pakistan, Australia
and England have one player each.</p>
<p class="x_x_x_news-body" style="text-align:justify">A five member panel of ICC, headed by Clive Lloyd, choose the team. They analyzed the performances of players between the period from August 11, 2010 to August 3, 2011 and thus finalized the list accordingly.</p>
<p class="x_x_x_news-body" style="text-align:justify">Dhoni, who made it into ICC ODI team for the fourth year in succession, hasn’t been his best with the bat. The right-handed batsman scored 454 runs from 19 matches at an average of 32.42 which is well below
his career average of 49.09.</p>
<p class="x_x_x_news-body" style="text-align:justify">Lloyd explained why they choose Dhoni to lead the side, saying, “He (Dhoni) is a very studious guy, don't forget that. He doesn't have a lot to work with, he moves around his side a lot, and is a good thinker.”</p>
<p class="x_x_x_news-body" style="text-align:justify">Apart from Dhoni the other three Indian players include the left-arm pacer, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, and the explosive opening batsman Virender Sehwag.</p>
<p class="x_x_x_news-body" style="text-align:justify">Zaheer and Yuvraj totally justify their position in the outfits; however, some questions have been raised over the inclusion of Sehwag as fellow countrymen Gautam Gambhir and South Africa’s Hashim Amla have
performed better than Sehwag during the stipulated period. Amla has scored 1091 runs from 20 games while Gambhir has scaled 722 runs from 14 matches.</p>
<p class="x_x_x_news-body" style="text-align:justify">Lloyd believes that every player included in the team deserved his place. The former West Indian captain said, “A lot of players were in contention and the cut off date was August 3. It was a tough selection
but I am happy with this squad. There were a lot of people on the selection panel, Sachin Tendulkar as well, and it is very difficult to leave him out but when you look at the some of the players they have done reasonably well. They had done better than him.”</p>
<p class="x_x_x_news-body" style="text-align:justify"><strong>ICC's ODI team of the year:</strong> MS Dhoni (captain & wk), Virender Sehwag, Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB de Villiers, Shane Watson, Kumar Sangakkara, Yuvraj Singh, Graeme Swann, Umar Gul, Dale Steyn,
Zaheer Khan, 12th Man - Lasith Malinga</p>
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