The voice of cricket Harsha Bhogle has picked his Asia Cup best XI and interestingly he has choosed six Indian players in the team. Bhogle feels that the tournament was unusual because of the closely contested matches and dominant display from underdog teams.
Harsha’s team feature two players from Bangladesh and Afghanistan and one player from Pakistan.
His pick
The 57-year-old from Hyderabad picked Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan to open the innings. Dhawan is the highest run-getter in the series with 327 runs in four innings, while Rohit is the third highest run-getter with 269 runs in four innings.
At no. 3, Harsha picked Ambati Rayudu, who also comes from Hyderabad. He has scored 173 runs in five innings and has certainly brought down the headache of India’s controversial middle-order woes. “Every time he was put into a situation, he got runs, he finished off a couple of matches and so Rayudu is my No.3,” he said.
He picked ever dependable Mushfiqur Rahim at number 4 and senior Pakistan all-rounder Shoaib Malik at number 5. Rahim is the second highest run-getter in the series with 297 runs in four innings. Malik has brought his all-round abilities into action with 211 runs in five innings and handy off-spin option in the middle overs.
Interestingly, Harsha did not picked Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the wicket-keeper of the team on which he said “You’re at a historical team of all the players in this and the first name that goes into this is MS Dhoni. But in this tournament, he hasn’t had a lot to do simply because India’s batting has been so good,”.
In the all-rounder slot, Harsha picked Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammad Nabi. Jadeja has picked 7 wickets in three matches and Nabi has picked five wickets and scored 134 runs in five matches.
In the bowling department, he picked India’s pace duo of Jasprit Bumrah(7 wickets in 3 matches) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar(6 wickets in 4 matches). Bangladesh’s Mustafizur Rahman was also included in his team who has picked 8 wickets in four matches.
In the spin department, Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan finds a place in the team who is the highest wicket taker in the tournament (10 wickets in 5 matches).
Harsha Bhogle’s best XI of Asia Cup 2018
Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Nabi, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Rashid Khan, Mustafizur Rahman
