Best Asian ODI XI of the year 2020

2020, for the most part, has been a year marred with negativity and disappointment. Especially from a cricket fan’s perspective: the number of international games televised this year were at a record low, owing to the COVID-19 global pandemic.

But heading into 2021, while things are still quite iffy on the future global health situation, there are some interesting cricket templates available to draw conclusions for the coming year. One of them being the best set of players from the year gone by. So in the vein of the popular best and worst playing XIs of the year: here’s a fun spin on the classic format, as we analyze 2020’s Best Playing XI of Cricketers from Asia only.

Asian ODI XI of 2020

Liton Das (BDESH)

The 26-year-old Bangladesh batsman has, in recent years, been a vital cog to their success in One-Day cricket. His ability to play a wide range of shots makes him an extremely valuable, all-terrain player for the Bengal Tigers.

But the aspect that really earmarks Liton as one of Bangladesh’s most promising batters, is his versatility in the batting order. After a moderately successful 2019, where he played mostly in the middle-order, Liton amped up the heat this year in Bangladesh’s one-off ODI home series against Zimbabwe.

Playing as an opener, Liton scored two scintillating tons; the second knock being a gargantuan innings of 176 that ended up as this year’s ODI high score. Thanks to that series, he finishes 2020 with an insanely jacked-up average of 155.5. Easy pickings to open the batting for the best Asia XI team.

There could be some questions over his consistency, and some doubts over how he fares against better-ranked international oppositions. But considering his rich vein of form in the recently concluded Bangabandhu T20 Cup- where he topped the run-scoring charts with 393-runs- Liton makes a more than strong case for himself to lead this competent line-up’s run-scoring responsibilities.