Former India skipper Virat Kohli, who was adjudged the Player of the match for the ICC T20 World Cup final against South Africa in Barbados, missed out on the ICC’s team of the tournament that comprises as many as six Indian players, including captain Rohit Sharma.

The Rohit Sharma-led outfit handed a seven-run defeat to the Proteas to claim their second T20 World Cup title, and ended India’s 11-year title drought.

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Rohit deservingly found a spot in the team along with Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh. The India skipper made 257 runs in the tournament at a rate of 156.7, the second-most by any player, while batting at top of the order. He scored three fifties in eight games, the most memorable of which was the 92 he scored off just 41 balls against Australia in the Super Eight. He also plundered 57 off 39 balls in the semi-final.

With two half-centuries and a vital 47 in the semi-final against England, Suryakumar Yadav had a good tournament from the middle-order despite playing on some difficult batting wickets. He made his presence felt in both the knockout games, first with a crucial 47 with the team in trouble in the semi-final against England, and then with one of the best catches the tournament has ever witnessed in a pivotal moment in the final.

Hardik Pandya made impactful cameos down the order with the bat and made breakthroughs with the ball when the team needed him to. Leading up to the final, he scored more than 20 in four successive matches from down the order, including a half-century against Bangladesh. His most notable performance came in the final, when he stopped a rampaging Heinrich Klaasen and went on to deliver an excellent final over to lead India to their title victory.

Axar Patel emerged the unsung hero of India’ victorious campaign. Vital cameos with the bat, one of the best catches in the tournament, and crucial spells with the ball, Axar did it all through the T20 World Cup. His ability to adapt to different roles and make impactful performances proved critical to India’s title-winning charge. In the final, promoted up the order, Axar made a brilliant, counter-attacking 47 that helped Virat Kohli settle in and play the anchor role. In the semi-final, he produced a Player of the Match performance against England, taking 3/23 with the ball.

Jasprit Bumrah, the Player of the Tournament and India’s trump card in their title win, was unstoppable during the campaign. More than the 15 wickets he took, his impact in restricting the scoring rate of teams made Bumrah India’s most potent weapon right through the tournament. His economy rate of 4.17 is the best ever by any bowler in a single edition of the men’s T20 World Cup.

Arshdeep Singh finished as the joint-highest wicket-taker in the tournament with 17 wickets in eight matches. The left-arm fast bowler was the perfect foil for Jasprit Bumrah with the ball and shone with his early powerplay spells. In the final, Arshdeep played a vital role in India’s win, taking the big wicket of Quinton de Kock at a crucial point in the match and then went on to bowl a brilliant penultimate over, conceding just four runs to guide India to their second T20 World Cup crown after a gap of 17 years since their title win in the inaugural edition.

Meanwhile, besides the six Indians, the ICC team of the T20 World Cup 2024 also comprised three Afghanistan players — Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rashid Khan and Fazalhaq Farooqi, signalling the team’s rapid rise in shortest format. Afghanistan end the tournament with a best-ever finish of reaching the semifinals where they lost to South Africa in Trinidad.

The remaining two spots in the team was taken by Australia’s Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran of the West Indies. South Africa’s Anrich Nortje was named as the 12th player.