The World Cup 2023 has come into its last stage: the knockout round. After 45 matches in the league phase of the World Cup 2023, we have the four semi-finalists: India, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
The World Cup 2023 lived up to its hype of being a run-scoring fest. And it’s been a high-scoring tournament. The average runs per wicket in this tournament is 32, which is the highest for any of the previous 12 ODI World Cups, and so is the strike rate of 92.29.
There have been 35 hundreds in 45 matches. Only the 2015 World Cup had more centuries – 38 hundreds in 48 matches. Also, this World Cup has broken the six record way back: so far 592 sixes have been hit, going miles ahead of the 463 sixes in the 2015 World Cup.
While many big-name players stood up with their performances, this tournament also saw a few marquee cricketers not living up to their experience and standards and hype – the flops.
Here’s the top 5 flop big players in World Cup 2023:
Babar Azam
Among batters, nobody has disappointed more than the Pakistan captain Babar Azam. Babar had come into the World Cup as the number 1 ranked ICC ODI Batsman, and now not only he’s lost his position as the top ODI batter, but is also likely to face the sack as Pakistan’s white-ball captain.
Babar scored 320 runs – not too bad, but way below his standards and quality – at an average of 40 with 4 half-centuries, failing to convert any of them into a hundred. His strike rate of 82 was really poor considering Pakistan played most of their matches on good batting surfaces.
Haris Rauf
Haris Rauf is one of the finest T20 bowlers currently, but perhaps the Pakistan fans expected too much from him in the ODI format in the World Cup. The ‘Pace is pace yaar’ saying has rarely been exposed in such a way as it was with Rauf in this tournament.
He was smoked for 533 runs – the most a bowler has ever conceded in a World Cup – leaking runs at a poor economy of 6.74.
Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali
With the World Cup 2023 taking place in India, both Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali had been expected to have big impacts in England’s title defence. But both all-rounders failed disastrously.
In 6 matches each, Moeen scored 95 runs at a strike rate of 74 and Livingstone scored 60 runs at a strike rate of 63 – simply horrible batting stats for two experienced players. With the ball, they picked up a combined 8 wickets in 6 games.
Shadab Khan
Another all-rounder who had been touted to do well in the World Cup 2023 in Indian conditions, but failed bigtime is Pakistan’s Shadab Khan. So much so that the Pakistan vice-captain lost his place in the XI to the inexperienced Usama Mir.
Shadab managed to pick just two wickets – those of Vikramjit Singh and Pathum Nissanka – in 5 outings with the ball, averaged 118 with the ball and had an economy of 6.23.
