Asia Cup 2018: Aakash Chopra picks his best combined tournament XI

The former India Test Cricketer has picked a formidable unit.

Aakash Chopra has picked a formidable unit for his best Asia Cup 2018 XI

Former India Test Cricketer Aakash Chopra has announced his best Asia Cup 2018 XI, made up of the best performers of the tournament across all teams. 

Although it is the Rohit Sharma led Indian Cricket Team which came out triumphant at the end of it all, there were some really good performances from the players featuring for the other participants - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Hong Kong and even Sri Lanka - too. 

Starting at the top, Aakash, who was commentating for the event and watched it very closely, has got the might of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, the explosive opening pair for India continuing the good work in his team. Rohit and Shikhar were simply outstanding with the bat in the competition, scoring 317 at an average of 105.7 and 342 runs at 68.4 across five games each respectively. There is a greater value attached to these runs for the batting wasn't as easy in Dubai and Abu Dhabi as it has been all over the world in the post-2015 ODI era. 

In the middle order, purely on the back of performances, Aakash has got Afghanistan's Hashmatullah Shahidi at no.3 for his 263 runs at 65.75, followed by Bangladesh's best batsman Mushfiqur Rahim, who scored 302 runs at 60.40. Rahim was also as safe as house behind the stumps and is wicketkeeper of Aakash's side too. 

Pakistan's most dependable cricketer Shoaib Malik, who batted as good as ever and amassed 211 runs at 70.33, with his exploits against arch-rivals India standing out, is the one picked to perform the tough role of batting at no.5. 

Now for the all-rounders' slot for no.6 and no.7, Aakash has tried to balanced out his team by featuring in Afghanistan off-spinner Mohammad Nabi and Ravindra Jadeja, for their 5 and 7 wickets respectively at a very good economy rate and some very handy batting lower down the order. 

On the bowling front, no surprises for guessing, Rashid Khan, the best-limited overs spinner in the world, is been picked as the premier spinner of the side along with teammate Mujeeb Ur Rahman. It's incredible the rise that Afghanistan Cricket has made, and their duo being picked ahead of the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, is a great example of that. 

Rashid and Mujeeb were simply unplayable at times. 

Two slots left and it is, very deservingly, India's Jasprit Bumrah and Bangladesh's Mustafizur Rahman, who have been picked as the fast bowling pair of the side. Bumrah, as well as the "Fizz", were brilliant in the competition with the new as well as the old ball. 

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 30 Sep, 2018

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