CWC 2019: 5 players who disappointed the ICC World Cup 2019

These five players failed to live up to the expectations of their fans and management.

The ICC World Cup 2019 saw England becoming the ODI World Champions for the first time ever and gave us perhaps the greatest ODI match of all time. The tournament saw the crème de la crème of cricketers from 10 countries and they performed to make their team world champions.

Ben Stokes won the Man of the Finals award, while Kane Williamson was given the Player of the tournament. Rohit Sharma of India was the highest run-getter with 648 runs in 9 matches and a record five centuries to his name. Mitchell Starc of Australia was the highest wicket-taker with 27 scalps to his name and made their respective countries proud which made it into the semifinals.

But there were a handful of players who disappointed a lot on this world stage. Some of the players are stalwarts of the game, while some of them were one of the most feared ones in their prime. Therefore, Team COC picks out five such players who proved to be big disappointments in the ICC World Cup 2019.

Here are the 5 players who disappointed in the ICC World Cup 2019

HASHIM AMLA (SA)

South Africa backed 36-year-old Hashim Amla to come good at the biggest stage of them all despite a poor performance coming into the tournament. However, Amla couldn’t manage to give the starts that the Proteas needed at the top and made just 203 runs in 7 matches.

He also copped a blow to his head from a Mark Wood bouncer. His highest score of 80* came against Sri Lanka, but he failed to get going in crunch matches against India, West Indies, and Pakistan.

MARTIN GUPTILL (NZ)

The only way one can describe the kind of World Cup New Zealand’s Martin Guptill had is ‘horrible’. He managed just 186 runs in 10 games and that too with help of the highest score of 73*. In comparison, Guptill had top-scored in the 2015 World Cup, including the record score of 237* in the quarter-finals.

However, Guptill possibly made the throw of his life in the semi-finals to run out dangerman MS Dhoni and seal the game for the Kiwis, just when the Indian wicketkeeper-batsman was looking to take India into the finals. His other significant throw came in the finals which hit Stokes’ bat and went for four overthrows, enabling England to tie the match chasing 242 to win.

CHRIS GAYLE (WI)

Chris Gayle wanted to sign off from the World Cup stage with a century. Unfortunately, the Jamaican opener managed the highest score of 87, as he amassed 242 runs in 9 matches he played and made only one another half-century. He was the first batsman to score a double hundred in World Cup history, a feat he achieved with his 215 against Zimbabwe in 2015 edition, but this was his last World Cup given that he turned 39 a few months ago and he left the stage in a disappointing manner.

GLENN MAXWELL (AUS)

Glenn Maxwell was the finisher for the Australia team and he terribly failed to live upto the expectation. He managed just 177 runs in 10 matches and though had a strike rate of 150.00, couldn’t manage a single fifty in the tournament and his spin also proved to be ineffective as he couldn’t manage to get a single wicket in the 49 overs he bowled in the tournament.

MS DHONI (IND)

Another legend of the game who probably played his last World Cup in 2019, India’s 2011 tournament-winning captain MS Dhoni made 273 runs in 9 matches with 2 half-centuries and the best score of 56*. Dhoni struggled to rotate the strike and consumed many overs to get himself set. This put pressure on other batsmen to lift the run rate and Dhoni was rightly criticized for the same by the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and others.