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Picking a team of the tournament is a common occurrence after a major event – we have gone and picked ours.
But as much as there are always the stars that shine, there are also those that fail to find form and which disappoint. The T20 World Cup had plenty of underperforming players, those who got ‘must try harder’ written on their report cards.
Let’s take a moment to compile our underwhelming eleven now that the tenth T20 World Cup has been completed.
1. Jos Buttler (England)
England arrived at the World Cup with their openers, Jos Buttler and Phil Salt firmly ensconced in the top five of the ICC batting rankings.
Big things were expected from them. Neither really came to the party, but Buttler was far and away the most underwhelming. Buttler managed just 87 runs at an average of 10.87.
England’s inability to make solid starts was one of the reasons they never produced the sort of fluent performance that was hoped for.
2. Travis Head (Australia)
Australia‘s campaign was a disaster. For a team that boasts an exceptionally proud record in ICC events, for Australia, who came into the competition as the second ranked side in the world, their failure to exit the pool stages was a low.
It was a campaign that struggled on so many fronts. They were badly hit by injury, but their preparation was poor and their players low on confidence and experience. On player who was expected to shine was Travis Head.
Not only is Head a T20 star and an IPL regular, but he had also been in great form during the Ashes, smashing the ball all over the park. As much as they are different formats, Head was a man in form when he left Australia. In all he managed just 111 runs with one 50 plus score.
3. Phil Salt (England)
Salt was the world’s number two batsman heading into the competition and there was plenty expected from him. Like Head (above), Salt passed 50 once.
He ended the tournament as the 47th highest scorer, which is not bad if you are a middle order batsman for a mid-ranked team; but if you are an opener for a top side, you should be doing a lot more.
Granted he was under pressure from the repeated failures of his opening partner, but to end the tournament with just an average of 16.25 is a long way short of what he would have been hoping for.
4. Abhishek Sharma (India)
Abhishek looked good in the final as he smashed a brisk 52 from 21 balls to give the innings the unassailable momentum that could never be arrested. But for the most part, his tournament returns were underwhelming.
He made ducks in each of his first three innings before finally opening his account. But 141 runs at an average of 17.62 is simply not good enough for the man who was (and still is) ranked number one in the world at the start of the competition.
What’s more, Abhishek boasts the highest career strike rate in T20Is, but even that was way below par for him at the World Cup where he scored his runs at (by his standards) a pedestrian rate of 158.42 for India.
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5. Cameron Green (Australia)
The most expensive overseas player ever to be purchased on the IPL auction, there was a lot expected to the big Australian allrounder.
Green was so disappointing that he wasn’t even the highest-ranking Green at the competition – that honour fell to Namibia’s Zane Green (hmmm… me neither).
Cameron contributed 24 runs to Australia’s faltering cause, averaging just eight for the campaign. KKR will hope he brings a bit more to the party when he arrives to play for them at the end of the month.
6. Babar Azam (Pakistan)
Once the number one white-ball player in the world, Babar has lost his touch in spectacular fashion.
Seemingly weighed down by the burden of his past brilliance and his inability to rediscover the magic, Babar always looked as though he had the weight of the world on his shoulders when batting.
He finished with just 91 runs at an average of 22.75. Most alarming though was his strike rate which at 112.34 was far too slow and guaranteed to be placing pressure on the batsmen who followed him.
7. Glenn Maxwell (Australia)
Another Australian who could not live up to his reputation. A player who was known as the ‘Big Show’, Maxwell is now almost 38-years-old and sadly, well past his prime.
He struggled in IPL last season, and he looked badly out of touch in a struggling Aussie line-up at the World Cup. Gone are the days where Maxwell could come in and turn the momentum of game with his power hitting.
He managed 62 runs in the tournament at an average of 20.66.
8. Keshav Maharaj (South Africa)
The veteran South African spinner is a wily campaigner with plenty of experience. Maharaj is a brave performer who always gives his best, but at 36-years-old you can’t help but feel that he is running out of career runway.
Maharaj managed just five wickets at the tournament, three of them coming in just one over, ironically all caught at long off by Tristan Stubbs who was perfectly placed to stop them clearing the rope for six.
Maharaj ended the competition with a bowling average of 35.80 and a strike rate of 25.2.
9. Nathan Ellis (Australia)
After Adam Zampa, Ellis was Australia’s second highest ranked bowler coming into the tournament.
As much as a lot has been made about the absence of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazelwood, Ellis has been the form man for the Baggy Greens for the last little while and there was plenty expected from him in India.
In all he managed just five wickets, four of them coming in Australia’s first game against Ireland. He failed to make an impact against either Zimbabwe or Sri Lanka, which is ultimately where Australia dropped out of the competition.
10. Noor Ahmad (Afghanistan)
The Afghan spinner has a big reputation and has been a consistent performer in franchise leagues around the world. Alongside Rashid Khan he was expected to be a handful on the wickets of India and Sri Lanka, but his competition was over almost before it began.
Afghanistan were desperately unlucky not to advance from the pool stages as they were drawn alongside dual semi-finalists South Africa and New Zealand. But Noor played in just two games and failed to take a wicket, a disappointing return.
11. Kagiso Rabada (South Africa)
Feared in Test cricket and with a huge reputation as a destroyer, Rabada was disconcertingly out of form for the Proteas.
Rabada managed just five wickets all tournament, his scalps coming at an average of 43.40, numbers that are so far removed from his teammates like Lungi Ngidi and Corbin Bosch and Marco Jansen.
The form of his teammates meant that Rabada’s poor form wasn’t more cruelly highlighted, but his horror show final over against Afghanistan nearly cost South Africa dearly.
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The post Revealed: Cricket365’s most underwhelming T20 World Cup XI appeared first on Cricket365.
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