This is the team of Asia Cup 2018 which failed to perform to expectations.
While many players like Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammad Shahzad, Rashid Khan, Jasprit Bumrah, Mustafizur Rahman and others shined with bat and ball; there were many players who also didn’t manage to sparkle the way they were expected to. Many big-name players fizzled out despite having the potential to do well.
Team COC looks at eleven such players and presents to you the COC Flop XI of the Asia Cup 2018.
The opening combination of this flop XI is Pakistan’s Fakhar Zaman and Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis. Zaman made 56 runs in 5 innings for Pakistan. He had come off a bumper series against Australia and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe, where he also scored the first ever double century in ODIs for Pakistan. But he failed miserably against the Indian and Afghanistan spinners.
Kusal Mendis was once again given chance to prove himself in the top order by Sri Lanka selectors and he responded by scoring two ducks in the two matches he played in Asia Cup 2018 against Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Babar Azam scored 156 runs in 5 innings, but more was expected from him. Azam has a very good record in ODIs and much depended on him for Pakistan to do well in the tournament. Angelo Mathews came into the tournament as the Sri Lanka captain and played 2 matches, scoring 38 runs. The Lankan captain peeved the selectors with his slow running between the wickets and the tendency to run out his partners.
Pakistan used the bizarre ploy of playing just one specialist spinner in their matches in Shadab Khan, who picked four wickets in the four games he played. It was a disappointing series for a talent like Shadab. Hassan Ali, the Pakistani pacer had shown the intent of picking all the 10 Indian wickets when Pakistan met India but failed to pick up a single wicket in two clashes.
Akila Dananajaya played just one match in the tournament, as he missed the first one for the birth of his first child, and in the second match, he picked 2/39 but couldn’t stop SL from crashing out of the tournament.
COC Flop XI of the Asia Cup 2018:
Fakhar Zaman (PAK), Kusal Mendis (SL), Babar Azam (PAK), Angelo Mathews (SL), MS Dhoni (WK-IND), Sarfraz Ahmed (C- PAK), Shadab Khan (PAK), Hassan Ali (PAK), Usman Khan Shinwari (PAK), Mohammad Amir (PAK), Akila Dananjaya (SL)