Top five players who flopped in showpiece event

He just finished the 2023 Cricket World Cup producing some outstanding individual performances with both bat and ball. There were great finishes, game-changing spells of bowling and match-winning catches.

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The World Cup had everything. Established stars like Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell broke records, but we also saw players like Rachin Ravindra and Travis Head emerge on the big stage.

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However, it wasn’t always the stars who made the headlines. There were several players who flopped as well in the showpiece event. With the 13th edition of the ODI World Cup done and done, let’s now look at some top flops from the event:

Babar Azam (Pakistan)

Babar Azam had a difficult journey as Pakistan’s skipper in the 2023 World Cup. He failed to lead his team to the semi-finals, with the Men in Green finishing fifth with just eight points.

His result had a major impact on Pakistani cricket, with Babar retiring as skipper in all formats.

Moreover, Babar’s performance with the bat was not as good. He managed 320 runs from nine matches at an average of 40, but his strike rate fell below 100 over matches under scrutiny.

He scored four fifties and not even a single century this tournament, which added to the imbalance in Pakistan’s batting line-up.

Jos Buttler (England)

England came into the World Cup as defending champions and much was riding on captain Jos Buttler. However, Buttler struggled in the big time with the bat. The 33-year-old’s highest score this World Cup was 43 against New Zealand in the opening game of the tournament, and things have gone from bad to worse for Buttler since then.

His next best score was 27 runs against Pakistan in England’s final, and he also suffered four single-figure dismissals in these nine matches.

Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh)

A lot was expected from the Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan. Shakib finished with 606 runs in the 2019 edition of the Cricket World Cup in England, but failed to replicate that feat this time.

Shakib couldn’t even score half of what he did in 2019, managing 186 runs from seven matches at an average of 26.57.

Moreover, he had a tournament to forget for reasons other than his batting or his captaincy. In particular, the way he handled Angelo Mathews’ “Timed Out” dismissal when Bangladesh took on Sri Lanka in Delhi.

Shakib was eventually ruled out of Bangladesh’s final against Australia with a finger injury, which eventually meant Najmul Hossain Shanto led the team in his place.

Kagiso Rabada (South Africa)

In the absence of the injured Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada was expected to lead South Africa’s pace attack. Although Rabada knows Indian conditions well thanks to his IPL experience, the 28-year-old has fared below par with the ball, picking up just 13 wickets in nine matches.

Although Rabada would start strongly, picking up seven wickets from the first three matches, he would only manage six more wickets from the next six matches, also struggling in the powerplay against Australia in the semi-final, where which he would meet. a few sixes with David Warner and later Travis Head.

Maheesh Theekshana (Sri Lanka)

Maheesh Theekshana came into the World Cup after a productive run in the Asia Cup, taking nine wickets in four matches.

However, Theekshana failed to find his rhythm in the World Cup, scalping just six wickets in eight matches. And costly figures of 0/55 and 0/67 against Afghanistan and India respectively did not help the spinners’ case.

To add to these woes, Theekshana also failed to have Wanindu Hasaranga as his bowling partner in the finals, with Theekshana himself saying that bowling without the 26-year-old was challenging.