Pakistani, Indian players not included in ICC's World Cup squad

Cricket body announces New Zealand-dominated dream team with Brendon McCullum as the captain

Despite brilliant performances by Wahab Riaz and Sarfaraz Ahmad in the World Cup, not even one cricketer from either the Pakistan or Indian squad made it to the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) World Cup team.

The cricket body announced its dream team on Monday with New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum as the captain.

McCullum was chosen as the captain following his "aggressive, innovative and inspirational leadership" during the 44-day tournament that was the cornerstone of his team’s progression to the final where it lost to Australia by seven wickets.

In addition to McCullum, the side includes four New Zealanders, Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Martin Guptill, Daniel Vettori, three Australians -- Glenn Maxwell, Steven Smith and Mitchell Starc, two South Africans, AB de Villiers and Morne Morkel, with Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara as wicket-keeper-batsman.

Zimbabwe’s Brendan Taylor, who finished with 433 runs in six matches, was named as the 12th man.

The team was chosen by a select group of experts who were given the task of picking a balanced side on the basis of performances in the tournament. Statistics were used but were not the sole basis for selections.

ICC General Manager Cricket Geoff Allardice, who was also the chairperson of the panel, said: “The panel had an extremely difficult choice of selecting a 12-member squad at the back of an outstanding tournament, highlighted by some eye-catching individual performances including two double-centuries, 38 centuries, two hat-tricks and 28 four-wicket hauls.

“There were a number of other players that were discussed as possible selections in the team. These included batsmen Mahmudullah (Bangladesh) and Shaiman Anwar (UAE), fast bowlers Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami (both India), Wahab Riaz (Pakistan) and spinners Imran Tahir (South Africa) and R Ashwin (India).”

“But there were so many brilliant individual performances during the tournament that it was not possible to fit them into the team. The panel eventually came up with this side, which, in their view, was the most balanced outfit that is capable of beating any side on any given day.”