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Sri Lanka and Pakistan were among the most impressive ODI teams of the year, with some special players leading their good outings.
Sherfane Rutherford, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Wanindu Hasaranga (from left to right).
2024 was a rude shock for men’s ODI cricket. Where in 2023, as many as 13 nations played at least 20 matches in the format, none went past that mark this year.
Sri Lanka, with 18 ODIs, offered the highest participation, followed by Canada with 15. The hosts of the 2025 Champions Trophy, Pakistan, played just nine ODIs in the year.
Once the sport’s most loved format, ODIs struggled to maintain the hype in the aftermath of the 2023 World Cup. The tournament runners-up and the financial lynchpin of the sport, India, only played three 50-over internationals, as the focus shifted towards T20Is and Tests.
But, though the quantity suffered, the quality remained as high as ever. Pakistan treated South Africa with a first-ever clean sweep in their den, Afghanistan beat the Proteas 2-1 in the UAE, Sri Lanka made sure India didn’t win an ODI game all year by winning their only series 2-0, Australia and England played an all-timer five-match rubber, West Indies bested the English and so on.
Hardly any team will end 2024 with the same 11 — or combination — that it started, for many new stars emerged in these 12 months and some of the OGs found their rhythm back to make sure they weren’t written off already.
Christmas gives us the opportunity to look back at the best players in the period. So, here’s CricketNext’s men’s ODI Team of the Year:
The best batters of 2024
Pathum Nissanka: In about a decade or so, historians and Sri Lankan fans will look back at 2024 as the year when Pathum Nissanka transitioned from a ‘promising talent’ to a potential superstar. He was the highest-scoring opener in the year and put up 694 runs in 12 innings.
His average of 63.09 was the second-best among the top-10 run-scorers in 2024 while his strike rate of 106.44 was the best in the lot. Almost one-third of Nissanka’s runs came from a single innings — his brilliant 210 not-out against Afghanistan at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, which was also the biggest knock of the year.
As he hit two more centuries and as many fifties, 2024 witnessed how the right-hander’s clean technique allows him to play the situation and dominate bowlers, while always looking at ease.
Saim Ayub: As Sri Lanka saw their star-boy mature into a man, Pakistan unearthed and polished one in 22-year-old Saim Ayub. He smashed 515 runs in nine ODIs in 2024, with his average of 64.37 just inching Nissanka to be the best among the top-10 run-scorers.
Ayub announced himself with a swashbuckling — though slightly lucky — 82 (71) in his second ODI, against Australia in Adelaide, and continued to build on it with a maiden ton versus Zimbabwe and two more from three ODIs in South Africa. His quick starts and big-knock appetite played a major role in Pakistan’s historic whitewash of the Proteas.
As if his batting run wasn’t special enough, Ayub also took five wickets in the ODIs. If he can maintain the consistency, he’d be Pakistan’s most potent weapon in the Champions Trophy.
The Saeed Anwar-regen would form the perfect second half of this left-hand-right-hand opening combination with Nissanka.
Keacy Carty: West Indies’ Keacy Carty also pushed his case for being the future of the Men in Maroon in 2024 with 560 runs, including a century and three fifties, at an average of 62.22. He was the fourth-highest run-getter of the year and the Windies’ highest.
The left-hander started slowly but showed his true abilities in the second ODI against England at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium. His 71 (77) was perfect in tempo after two early wickets and although it came in a losing cause, his confidence clearly shot up.
In the next match, the series-decider, Carty smashed his first international hundred, a special 128* (114) to help chase 264 in 43 overs. He scored another 95 against Bangladesh to cap off an excellent year, one that would give West Indies some hope for the future.
Kusal Mendis (WK): This team has two number-three batters. Carty will alternate the position with Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis to maintain the left-hand-right-hand combination.
Mendis was the top run-scorer of 2024. He batted for the joint-highest number of innings too, 17, but was brilliantly consistent with his 742 runs at an average of 53. He struggled to convert his six half-centuries into big scores but managed a 143 against New Zealand.
Mendis showed glimpses of his ODI potential in the 2023 World Cup when he hit 27 fours and 15 sixes in a short span of time but lacked reliability and stability. He improved that this year by turning down the strike rate to 90.59 and regularly won matches for Sri Lanka.
He will also take the gloves for this team after taking 12 catches and seven stumpings to make it the joint-highest 19 dismissals for a wicketkeeper in 2024.
Four all-rounders that made 2024 their own
Charith Asalanka (C): There isn’t a better captaincy option for this year than Charith Asalanka, the Sri Lankan all-rounder who led the team to many an amazing win, including the first over India in 27 years. Under him, the Lankans maintained a brilliant overall win percentage of 66.66 in 2024, losing only three games all year.
Asalanka matched that with an equally good all-round show with 605 runs in 16 innings, including a century and four fifties, at an average of 50.41, while also taking 10 wickets at 27.10 apiece. He was almost the perfect ODI cricketer, giving spine to his middle-order and versatility and flexibility to the bowling lineup, while always taking the most responsibility.
Sherfane Rutherford: Talking about perfect years, 2024 would never be remembered without Sherfane Rutherford, the brilliant pace all-rounder from the Carribean. Rutherford shone across formats and leagues around the world but ODIs were his particular favorite.
In only his second year in the format, he smashed 425 runs in seven innings, remaining not out on three occasions. His average was a staggering 106.25 but his strike rate of 120.05, the best among the top-25 run-scorers of the year, was even better.
Rutherford simply didn’t have a bad knock in 2024. He hit four consecutive fifties against Sri Lanka and England and backed it up with his maiden century, 113 (80), and scores of 24*(15) and 30 (33) against Bangladesh to win the Player of the Series award.
Add to that his ability to bowl good pace when needed and he becomes, along with Carty, one of the players to watch out for in West Indies’ attempt to get back to ODI glory days.
Azmatullah Omarzai: Afghanistan’s Azmatullah Omarzai was always going to be a special player. But in ODIs in 2024, he was the gold standard for all all-rounders — his team’s second-highest run-scorer (417 runs in 12 innings at an average of 52.12, striking at 105.56) and the highest wicket-taker (17 wickets at 20.47 with an ER of 4.90).
He started the year magnificently, with a 149* (115) against Sri Lanka in Pallekele and played two equally influential knocks — 86* (50) and a 70* (77) — versus South Africa and Bangladesh, respectively. His wicket-taking was more consistent as he took two four-wicket-hauls back-to-back against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe and didn’t go more than two matches without picking a wicket, despite rarely bowling his full quota of 10 overs.
In Asalanka, Rutheford and Omarzai, this team has three clutch players habitual of saving games for their respective teams, making it a formidable lower-order.
Wanindu Hasaranga: Leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga, who can also hit the ball long, would add a bit of spice to the strong foundation. His key role would be bowling, as despite missing a couple of games due to injury, he ended 2024 as the joint-highest wicket-taker.
A bit like Omarzai, he peaked at the start of the year with a haul of 7/19 in just 5.5 overs against Zimbabwe on January 11. He added three more four-fers against different opponents — Afghanistan, Bangladesh and West Indies — to make it 26 wickets at 15.61.
He hit five fours and six sixes too to make it one of his best 12 months in the format.
Best three bowlers of 2024
Shaheen Shah Afridi: Former Pakistan T20 captain Shaheen Shah Afridi extends the batting depth of this team to number 10. Although he wasn’t among the top wicket-takers of the year with 15 scalps, he didn’t go even one match without being on the scoresheet.
And these matches were among the toughest for his team — away in Australia and South Africa. His spells of 2/43, 3/26 and 3/32 Down Under won Pakistan the first ODI series there in 22 years. South Africa found a version of him that was a notch better — Heinrich Klaasen got out to him in the first and third matches while in the second match, he took 4/47, including a stunning yorker to clean-bowl Marco Jansen.
Allah Ghazanfar: Afghanistan mystery spinner Allah Ghazanfar made his debut ODI year on his own with his guile, making the world take further note of his team. The 22-year-old’s ability to bowl a variety of balls at the same length — with discipline — got him T20 contracts all around the world, so many that he was playing multiple games on the same day.
Ghazanfar took three wickets when Afghanistan bowled out South Africa for 106 and immediately became a regular for the team. On the rise, he showed his ability to run through batting orders with spells of 6/26 and 5/33 against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, respectively.
His bowling average for the year was a ridiculous 13.57, only bettered by his compatriot Rashid Khan — who bowled in five fewer innings — among the top 15 wicket-takers.
Dillon Heyliger: It’s tricky to include players from associate nations in these lists because they hardly get to play against quality opponents, thanks to cricket’s money-oriented unequal system. However, Canada’s Dilon Heyliger made himself irresistible to join Afridi in this pace attack by leading the wickets charts for 2024 alongside Hasaranga with his 26 wickets at 22.23.
In other formats and T20 leagues, he got some big fish wickets, too (like his 2/18 against Pakistan at the T20 World Cup) but in ODIs, the only match he went wicketless all year was his last of the year, against Oman in Ontario when he bowled just one over.
Nepal were on the wrong side of his best spell of the year — a brilliant 5/31 — while Oman and the UAE endured four-wicket hauls. His ability to bowl in all phases of an innings and good variations would perfectly round up this attack, and team.
