Eight teams have been reduced to four after we saw an enthralling ICC Champions Trophy group stage. As many as 12 games were played in a span of as many days, with India being the only team to come out as victors in all their games. The Rohit Sharma-led side had a dream run in the league games and would be eyeing to make it five out of five to reclaim the Champions Trophy after 2013. Contrastingly, India’s arch nemesis Pakistan had a horrible campaign. They finished last in the Group A. One of the reasons for their horrendous season was because of the poor form their star players showed at the tournament. Thus, three of them have been selected in the “Flop XI” of the ICC Champions Trophy group stage.
Flop XI of Group Stage of ICC Champions Trophy
| S. No | Player | Team | Stats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phil Salt (wk) | England | 30 runs (AVG – 10.00) |
| 2 | Rahmanullah Gurbaz | Afghanistan | 16 runs (AVG – 5.33 & SR – 47) |
| 3 | Muhammad Rizwan | Pakistan | 49 runs (AVG – 24.5 & SR – 53.85) |
| 4 | Hashmatullah Shahidi (C) | Afghanistan | 60 runs (AVG – 20 & SR – 50.00) |
| 5 | Daryl Mitchell | New Zealand | 27 runs (AVG – 13.50 & SR – 45.76) |
| 6 | Mehidy Hasan Miraz | Bangladesh | 18 runs (AVG – 9 & SR – 75.00) 0 wickets |
| 7 | Tayyab Tahir | Pakistan | 5 runs (AVG – 2.5) 0 wickets |
| 8 | Jamie Overton | England | 1 wicket (AVG – 106.0 ECON – 7.07, SR – 90.0) |
| 9 | Shaheen Afridi | Pakistan | 2 wickets (AVG – 71.0, ECON – 7.9, SR – 54) |
| 10 | Nathan Ellis | Australia | 1 wickets (AVG – 111.0, ECON – 5.55, SR – 120.0) |
| 11 | Noor Ahmad | New Zealand | 1 wickets (AVG – 129.0, ECON – 6.19, SR – 125) |
Top-order: Phil Salt, Gurbaz & Muhammad Rizwan
The entire top order features three wicket-keepers. This tournament might not be best suited for wicket-keepers it seems! Phil Salt and Rahmanullah Gurbaz open this imaginary XI. Salt, who is one of the most destructive white-ball openers, looked like he was playing a T10 game. He tried to hoick every other ball and was averaged 10 runs per game. Gurbaz, meanwhile had a promising start with a century in a warm-up game against New Zealand. He managed scores of 10 and 6 against South Africa and England, respectively, before being dismissed for a duck by a stunning yorker from Spencer Johnson in the match against Australia. He averaged 5.33 at this tournament.
Meanwhile, Pakistan skipper Muhammad Rizwan was heavily trolled during the entire tournament. He made 49 runs in total, 46 of which came against India. However, that innings was extremely sluggish, with him having a SR of 59.74. His Champions Trophy SR is 53.84.
Middle-order: Skipper Shahidi, Mitchell, Mehidy & Tayyab
Our middle-order features skipper of this team, Hashmatullah Shahidi. While his leadership has changed Afghanistan cricket in a good way, his batting was extremely poor. He started the campaign with a duck against the Proteas before playing two painstaking innings that derailed Afghanistan. He made 40 off 67 against England and was saved by Ibrahim Zadran’s 177 before stuttering a 49-ball 20 against Australia. At number five and six are Daryl Mitchell and Mehidy Hasan Miraz. Both are key cogs in their teams but failed to shine.
Mitchell missed one game but didn’t do anything in the other two. He made 27 runs in total at a horrible average of 13.50. Meanwhile, Mehidy has been looked as a successor to Shakib Al Hasan. He batted at number three but the move backfired. He made 5 & 13. Quite fascinatingly, he didn’t manage to take any wickets as well. Another Pakistani included is Tayyab Tahir, who quite literally didn’t do anything. It was quite intriguing as to why Rizwan played him both the games. We are talking about Tayyab Tahir here, who played as a specialist batter but made a grand total of five runs!
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Pacers: Shaheen Afridi, Overton, Ellis
Three great players but lacked form at the ICC Champions Trophy. The troika of Pakistani pacers: Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah & Haris Rauf all have been quite ordinary at recent times but we have included only the left-arm pacer. Afridi was touted to take this tournament by a storm. But if we remove the menacing yorker he bowled to Rohit Sharma, Afridi had nothing to show. He bowled 108 balls in the tournament but leaked 142 runs! Also, his bowling average of 71.00 is just extremely subpar. The two right-arm pacers are Jamie Overton and Nathan Ellis. Both took one wicket each and had poor averages of above 100.00.
Spinner: Noor Ahmad
The sole frontline spinner included is Noor Ahmed. The new Chennai Super Kings (CSK) tweaker underperformed heavily despite Afghanistan winning hearts in all their matches. Unfortunately, Noor couldn’t find his length and was too short most of the times. He picked up just one wicket and had an average of 129.00. His economy of 6.19 was poor as well.
The post Flop XI of ICC Champions Trophy Group Stage: Rizwan with 2 other Pakistanis & Gurbaz-Noor picked appeared first on Inside Sport India.