Asia Cup 2022: Now that Asia Cup 2022 has come to an end, ESPN Cricinfo has released a team (11 players) comprising the best players of the tournament and the selection has been made based on their performances. Fans have had mixed feelings about the playing XI and the biggest reason for that is because the team has only 2 Indian players in it. Although it is true that the performance of India in Asia Cup 2022 was downright poor, keeping only 2 Indian players in the Best XI of any team will always move some eyeballs and that is exactly what’s happening in this case as well.
Let us first take a look at the playing XI and then we will comment on some of the controversial decisions.
ESPN Cricinfo team of the Asia Cup 2022
- Kusal Mendis
- Gurbaz
- Virat Kohli
- Ibrahim Zadran
- Bhanuka Rajapaksha
- Dasun Shanka
- Wanindu Hasaranga
- Mohammad Nawaz
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar
- Haris Rauf
- Naseem Shah
As we can see, the only two Indian players who made the cut for the team are Virat Kohli and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Virat Kohli was the second highest run-scorer in the tournament while Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the highest wicket-taker.
Although fans are upset about only 2 Indian players in the Best XI, it is a fact that none of the other Indian players did anything so good as to make it to the team and thus that is a good decision on their part.
However, the decision that shocked everyone was the absence of Mohammad Rizwan. The Pakistani batsman was the highest runscorer in the tournament and the fact that ESPN Cricinfo decided not to add him to the Best XI is confusing and laughable.
Youngster Naseem Shah impressed everyone with his performance in this tournament as well but there might have been a better alternative to him in the Best XI as well.
Apart from these, they have picked almost all the other spots nicely and it is a well deserved and well-thought playing XI.
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