On Sunday, Afghanistan defeated West Indies in the final of ICC World Cup Qualifier 2018 and claimed their first major ICC title. This was their second successive win over West Indies in ODIs and both came in this tournament. With the completion of this eventful tournament, ICC has announced the best XI players to form a combined team from the tournament. Let’s have a look at the players who are selected in this team.
Starting with opening spot, West Indies’ Evin Lewis gets to sit there in this XI. He has been the man for West Indies throughout the tournament.
With 316 runs from 8 games at 39.5 with the strike-rate of 80.4, including three, fifty plus scores, Lewis is the 3rd highest run-getter in the tournament and highest from his team.
Evin Lewis
The veteran Scottish batsman did a brilliant job for his team at the top by smashing 276 runs in the tournament at 55.2 from 7 games.
It was him who gave good start to Scotland on most occasions.
Kyle Coetzer
Brendon Taylor, who recently made his comeback to international cricket with Zimbabwe, proved why he is still the best batsman of the country. Taylor is also the wicketkeeper of this team.
With 457 runs at 65.28 with the strike rate of 96, including 2 centuries and 1 fifty, Taylor is the leading run-getter in the tournament. Although, his team could not qualify for the World Cup.
Brendan Taylor
Followed by Taylor, Samuels joins the middle-order batting of this team. The veteran West Indies’ batsman stood in the right time.
Samuels swatted 304 runs from 8 games at 43.42, including three fifties. He is the 4th highest run-getter in the tournament and 2nd from West Indies.
Marlon Samuels
This Afghanistani all-rounder is effective with both bat and ball. Whenever Afghanistan find themselves in trouble, Nabi is always there to bail his team out of that situation.
With bat, Nabi amassed 291 runs at 41.57 from 8 games, while with ball, collected 12 wickets.
Mohammad Nabi
Here comes the Player of the tournament, who remained the best cricketer for Zimbabwe throughout. Scored 319 runs at 53.16 with the strike rate of 109.24, including one century and 2 fifties. This makes him the 2nd highest leading run-getter in the tournament.
This does not stop here as Sikandar also scalped 15 wickets from 7 matches and remain the highest wicket-taker from Zimbabwe in the tournament.
Sikandar Raza
Known for his attacking brand of batting, Najibullah Zadran is the another Afghani cricketer in this team. Najibullah has been the go to man for Afghanistan in death overs.
Throughout the tournament, Najibullah scored 254 runs at 63.5, including three fifties.
Najibullah Zadran
Finally, captain of this team is here. He is none other than West Indies’ captain Jason Holder, whose only defeats in the tournament came at the hands of Afghanistan.
Holder was not just effective as captain but also did a commendable job with both bat and ball. With bat, Holder hit 219 runs at 36.5 and with ball, he picked 15 wickets.
Jason Holder
Safyaan Sharif is probably the only name in this list who was previously not heard of. He bowls medium pace for Scotland and made his mark in the tournament by taking 17 wickets — joint highest in the tournament.
Safyaan Sharif
This tall lanky bowler is the only player in this team from Ireland. He is the spearhead of Irish bowling attack and with 15 wickets from 7 matches, Boyd Rankin deserves to be in this team.
Boyd Rankin
He is only 16-year old and has been making headlines regularly with his spin bowling. Alongside Rashid Khan, it was him who stood out for Afghanistan whenever needed with the ball.
Scalped 17 wickets — joint highest in the tournament from 8 matches.
Mujeeb Rahman
Despite being among the top wicket-takers in the tournament, Rashid Khan has been kept in the team as 12th man.
During the final contest of the tournament, Rashid completed 100 ODI wickets and became the fastest and youngest to reach this landmark.
Rashid Khan