ICC did not include Travis Head, Player of the Match at the semi-final and the final, in their Team of the Tournament for the 2023 World Cup.
In the World Cup semi-final, Travis Head claimed 2-21 and made 62. Then he held an outstanding catch to dismiss Rohit Sharma before making 137, the highest score in a chase in a World Cup final.
To nobody’s surprise, he was named Player of the Match in both the semi-final and the final, a feat previously achieved only by Mohinder Amarnath in 1983, Aravinda de Silva in 1996, and Shane Warne in 1999, as well as Alyssa Healy in the 2022 Women’s World Cup.
Head missed the start of the tournament with a broken hand but had an exceptional World Cup, smashing 329 runs at 54.83 at a strike rate of 128, starting with a rapid century against fellow semi-finalists New Zealand. But so stiff was the competition that the ICC did not include him in their team of the tournament.
Nor was there any place for Rachin Ravindra, despite his 578 runs (at 64.22 and 106) and five wickets.
However, Head’s fellow Australians Glenn Maxwell and Adam Zampa made the list, as did Ravindra’s compatriots Daryl Mitchell. From South Africa, Quinton de Kock made it for his phenomenal swansong in the format, notching four hundreds at the top of the order, while Gerald Coetzee is the 12th player of the team.
Dilshan Madushanka of Sri Lanka, who became the first to take 20 wickets in a World Cup from a team that did not make it to the top four, also made the cut.
The other six – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami – are all Indians. Rohit has been named captain of the side, while wicketkeeper de Kock is his opening partner.
