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?

#5 Rahmat Shah

Image result for Rahmat Shah Asia Cup 2018

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.