Aakash Chopra unveiled his 2023 ODI dream team, comprising six Indians, two South Africans, and one player each from New Zealand, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Notably, no Australian player made the cut, despite being the current World Champions.

In the wicketkeeping role, Chopra opted for Mohammad Rizwan over KL Rahul, highlighting Rizwan's impressive record of 1023 runs in 25 matches.

“KL Rahul’s case was a little bright here but I have kept Mohammad Rizwan as wicketkeeper in my team. He has scored 1023 runs in 25 matches. He has one century and seven fifties. You need to have a wicketkeeper with a batting average of 64. His strike rate is 93 but it is fine as it is still run-a-ball,” Chopra said.

Harsha Bhogle, in alignment with Chopra, also excluded Australian players from his selection of ODI team of the year. He, too, endorsed Rizwan as the wicketkeeper and included Shaheen Afridi as one of his pacers.

“I went with someone who was innovative and can suddenly come and change things around in the middle-overs very quickly and I went with Mohammad Rizwan at number five,” Bhogle said.

Expressing admiration for Shaheen Shah Afridi, Bhogle noted, “I love watching Shaheen Shah Afridi. His pace was down a little bit but he continued to take two wickets per game. As you saw in the World Cup, he is very good in the middle overs,” he added.

Aakash Chopra's ODI team of 2023: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Daryl Mitchell, Mohammad Rizwan, Shakib Al Hasan, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj

Harsha Bhogle’s ODI team of 2023: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Aiden Markram, Mohammad Rizwan, Heinrich Klaasen, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Shaheen Afridi