Asia Cup 2018: 5 biggest disappointments from the tournament

The Asia Cup has come to a close as India emerged victorious for the 7th time in the history of the tournament. They dominated throughout the tournament before having a couple of really close games in the last Super Four game and the Final.

Bangladesh were good in bursts as they won their first game convincingly before getting thrashed in two back-to-back games. They then won their last two Super Four games before running India close in the Final. Afghanistan played excellent cricket and were unlucky to be on the wrong side of three thrillers (out of which one was a tie).

Barring the first game against Hong Kong, Pakistan had a pretty underwhelming tournament and they were one of the biggest underachievers. Sri Lanka’s limited-overs misery continued as they failed to win even a single game and were the first team to be knocked out. Hong Kong were disappointing against Pakistan but they did give India a scare before bowing out.

This has been a pretty hectic tournament as 13 games were played in the span of 14 days (with two Super Four games being played on a single day). There have been a lot of excellent performances but here let’s look back at some of the biggest disappointments of this Asia Cup. So, who are the 5 players who disappointed the most?

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#5 Rahmat Shah

Afghanistan’s No. 3 batsman came into the Asia Cup as his team’s highest run-getter this year. In 2018, he had scored 600 runs in 14 innings at an average of 42.85. He had also scored 5 fifties and a hundred.

However, he didn’t live up to the expectation as he could muster only 122 runs in 5 innings. He started the tournament with an excellent 72 against Sri Lanka before the slump. Since that 72, he had scores of 10, 36, 1 and 3 as he finished the tournament with a middling average of 24.40.

Afghanistan’s opening partnership struggles didn’t help either as Rahmat found himself in the middle pretty early. He also struggled against left-arm spinners as Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammad Nawaz troubled him. All in all, it was a disappointing tournament for the 25-year-old Afghan No. 3.

#4 MS Dhoni

After a really disappointing ODI series in England, MS Dhoni had a 50-day break as India played Test cricket. It was expected that he would come back with better intent and make a statement. However, things haven’t really improved for MS Dhoni as far as his batting form is concerned.

In 4 innings, he has scored just 77 runs and what’s worse is that his strike-rate is in the low-60s (62.09). He got out for a duck against Hong Kong but it did look like he was finding his rhythm when he scored a fluent 33 against Bangladesh. He scored just 8 against Afghanistan before contributing 36 in the final.

To be fair, Dhoni looked good in the final. He looked a lot busier and was searching for runs most of the time. But after a good start, runs dried up again and was eventually dismissed off Mustafizur trying to force the issue.

In terms of keeping, he had a decent tournament. While there were a couple of missed chances, overall he was good behind the stumps.

#3 Mohammad Amir

In 2018, Mohammad Amir has looked a pale shadow of himself. He has picked up just 3 wickets in 10 ODIs. In fact, in the Asia Cup, he failed to pick even a single wicket. Despite being relatively economical, he hardly created a chance.

He bowled just 18 overs in this Asia Cup (7 against Hong Kong, 6 and 5 in the two games against India respectively). His ability to move the ball has also been on the decline. His ability to nip out early wickets with the new ball did affect Pakistan with the ball throughout the tournament.

It was not a surprise when he was dropped for the first Super Four game and then for the last Super Four game.

#2 Angelo Mathews

The kind of player Angelo Mathews is, the fans and the Sri Lankan team expect quite a lot from him. And once he didn’t have a great tournament, both personally and as a team, questions were bound to be raised. However, it went to the extreme that he was removed as ODI skipper.

Mathews had a disappointing series with the bat. He could score just 38 runs in 2 innings as Sri Lanka’s batting failed miserably both times they batted. Mathews is a key player and he is that rock in the middle order but he couldn’t continue his good form from the South Africa ODI series.

His strike-rate wasn’t inspiring either. He took time to settle down and he threw it away after consuming quite a few deliveries. He batted for 73 deliveries (in the two games) in this tournament and could manage just 38 runs.

This disappointing performance has led to his axe from the ODI team.

#1 Fakhar Zaman

Before this tournament was underway, Fakhar Zaman was in blazing form. He had struck 515 runs in 5 games against Zimbabwe. He got out just twice in that series and looked in ominous form.

However, he failed big time against some quality attacks as he could manage just 56 runs in 5 innings. Almost every game, Pakistan had their No. 3 Babar Azam at the crease much earlier than expected. Zaman just couldn’t get going. He registered a couple of ducks and in fact, even the 31 he scored against India in the Super Four game, he looked iffy.

Thus, Fakhar Zaman was one of the biggest disappointments of the tournament. His poor form at the top really affected Pakistan’s chances.