While the performances of the big names always matter a lot for a team, sometimes the players, who don’t get a lot of appreciation from the media and the fans, happen to play a significant role in the overall success of the team.
Here are the most underrated players in ODI cricket –
#1 Ravindra Jadeja (India):
Ravindra Jadeja scores quick-fire runs for India, batting down the order at no. 7. And he then gets the job done with the ball as well in the middle phase of the innings apart from adding value as a fielder. Despite excelling in all three departments of the game, he doesn’t quite the credit he deserves.
#2 Mohammad Hafeez (Pakistan)
Mohammad Hafeez is one of the best stroke-players against spin in the Pakistani team. He keeps the tempo going, batting at no. 4 for Pakistan, but the right-handed veteran batsman often gets criticized by the fans, some of whom believe that he should retire from the game altogether. Hafeez is a very handy off-spinner as well.
#3 Angelo Mathews (Sri Lanka)
Angelo Mathews does the tough job of finishing the innings for Sri Lanka and since Sri Lanka doesn’t have a lot of quality finishers at the moment, the fans expect a bit too much from Mathews. When he doesn’t live up to the expectations, he receives a fair bit of flak from the fans, sometimes unfairly as well.
#4 Adam Zampa (Australia)
Adam Zampa almost always provides Australia crucial breakthroughs between 10th and 40th over of the innings, but he goes under the radar a little bit. Australia has got such good fast bowlers that the limelight is on most of the time and people don’t talk about Zampa as much as he deserves.
#5 Martin Guptill (New Zealand)
Martin Guptill provides New Zealand a flyer of a start at the top of the order. He might be a little inconsistent, but the tempo that he sets for the Kiwis up top, it put their innings on track. However, Guptill is always on the target of the fans for his inconsistency and the impact that he makes goes unnoticed.
#6 Moeen Ali (England):
Moeen Ali might not be as powerful a striker of the ball as some of the other English batsmen, but he still manages to find the boundaries at regular intervals. Apart from his finishing abilities, Moeen also completes his quota of 10 overs in most of the games and gives the English XI a much-needed balance. However, he is not a much-hyped English player.
#7 Andile Phehlukwayo (South Africa)
Phehlukwayo hasn’t got a lot of paces, but he mixes up his lengths and his speeds very nicely and does the job for South Africa in the death more often than not. The left-hander can also hit the ball a fair distance. Despite the value that he brings to the table, Phehlukwayo isn’t a star South African cricketer.
#8 Mahmudullah (Bangladesh)
Mahmudullah is a quality finisher and has won a lot of games for Bangladesh from very tough situations. However, the fact that he doesn’t always get a lot of deliveries to face, he is not at the top of the run-scoring chart for Bangladesh every season, which is why his performance down the order doesn’t get as much recognition as it should.
