ICC Champions Trophy 2017: 5 players who failed to live up to expectations
The 2017 Champions Trophy has finally concluded with Pakistan humbling India by a massive margin of 180 runs in the Final at the Kennington Oval in London. The tournament has been an absolute spectacle with bottom-ranked teams rising to the occasion and giving the big guns a run for their money.
Going into the prestigious tournament, several players were expected to live up to their reputation and make match-winning contributions for their teams. But many of them crumbled during important stages of the game and failed to shepherd their team.
In our article today, we take a look at the five players who didn’t quite perform as per expectations.
#5 AB de Villiers
There’s little doubt that AB de Villiers is the most skilful batsman doing the rounds in all formats of the game and is rated among the best in the business. However, he has had a rough time of it during the recently concluded ICC Champions Trophy, hosted by England.
Captaining the South African side, De Villiers led his team to a thumping victory in the opening game of the tournament but slumped to defeat against India and Pakistan to crash out of the tournament. Even with the willow ABD hardly found any sort of momentum.
Scoring a mere 20 runs in three matches at an average of 6.66 doesn’t define the class of the individual. Factoring in the destructive power that the Proteas batsman possesses, he hardly lived up to his potential of demolishing oppositions.