Champions Trophy 2017: Best Playing XI

The 2017 edition of the Champions Trophy concluded with the most unexpected ending. The least ranked side to have entered the competition ended up winning the coveted silverware against one of the favorites in the finals. Team Pakistan won their first ever Champions Trophy title by inflicting a heavy 180 run defeat on the Indian team. The tournament was indeed a roller coaster ride for them. Well, truth be told, the tournament in itself was a spectacle that saw some of the most unexpected results – be it India losing to Sri Lanka, New Zealand losing to Bangladesh, or be it England losing to Pakistan. Efforts like these certainly do not happen every day. These require some moments of brilliance from individuals that lift the spirit of the entire unit. Champions Trophy 2017 saw the making of new heroes and at the same time, saw the big guns coming to the fore as well. Here we pick the best Playing XI from all the teams from the 2017 edition of the tournament: 1. Shikhar Dhawan – India Shikhar Dhawan of India. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images) Shikhar Dhawan’s love affair with the ICC events continued in the tournament as well. He was the phenomenal force behind India’s success in the tournament. Dhawan had finished as the winner of the Golden bat last year. He managed to repeat his feat yet again as he ended up as the leading run scorer of the tournament. He scored 338 runs in the 5 matches that he played at an average of 67.60. He batted with a strike rate of 101.80 and has 44 boundaries to his name – the most by any player in the tournament. Dhawan’s best effort had come against the Sri Lankn team when he had mustered 125 runs albeit in a losing cause. 2. Fakhar Zaman – Pakistan Fakhar Zaman of Pakistan celebrates reaching his century. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images) Paksistani opener Fakhar Zaman was arguably the most prominent takeaway of the tournament. The young left handed opener showed immense class and power to be the man of the night of the finals for team Pakistan. It was his brilliant 114 at the top of the order that set the base for a huge total for Pakistan in the finals against India. Earlier in the tournament, he had hit consecutive fifties in the matches against Sri Lanka and England. He finished with 252 runs to his name at an average of 63 in the tournament. Zaman has certainly emerged as one of the bright prospects for Pakistan in the future. 3. Tamim Iqbal – Bangladesh Bangladesh’s Tamim Iqbal. (Photo by John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images) The case with Tamim Iqbal seems to be like the ball in the wrong court at the moment. The veteran batsman rose to the occasion and was instrumental in taking his team to the semis. This was the first time that the Bangladesh side had made it to the finals. He scored a brilliant 128 in the tournament opener against England. He followed it up with a gutsy 95 in the match that followed against Australia. He was unlucky to have not ended on the winning note as Bangladesh lost to England and shared points with Australia. He later smashed a quick 70 in the semis against India, again in a losing cause. He finished as the third leading run getter of the tournament with 293 runs to his name at an average of 73.25. 4. Virat Kohli – India India’s batsman Virat Kohli celebrates hitting the winning runs. (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images) When Virat Kohli stepped in to bat in the finals against Pakistan, the hopes of all Indian fans banked on him. They knew that the target was daunting but had a lot of faith in their chase master. However, Kohli failed on the day of the finals. But that does not take any credit away from Kohli who had a wonderful tournament. He remained unbeaten on 3 occasions in the tournament. He mustered 258 runs in 5 matches at an average of 129 – the best average among all batsmen in the tournament. Kohli’s masterclass was at display during the semis against Bangladesh when his unbeaten 96 guided India home to a 9 wickets victory. 5. Joe Root – England Joe Root of England. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images) English batsman Joe Root seems to have made it a habit of scoring runs at will in every single game that he turns up for England. Root continued his good run of form in the tournament. He finished as the fourth leading run getter with 258 runs to his name in just 4 innings. He batted with an average of 86 – next to only Virat Kohli’s average in the top 5 batsmen of the tournament. He started the tournament with a high with an unbeaten 133 to his name against Bangladesh that helped England chase the total in excess of 300. Even in the semis against Pakistan which the English side lost, Joe Root was the only batsman who had looked in command of his batting. 6. Ben Stokes – England England batsman Ben Stokes. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images) Coming into the tournament, there was one player who was expected to hog all the limelight. It was none other than English all-rounder Ben Stokes. Ever since Stokes was bought for a whopping price in the IPL auctions, he has had the pundits looking at his numbers. He had justified every bit of his price tag in the IPL before arriving in the Champions Trophy. Undoubtedly, he finished as the all-rounder of the event. His batting heroics was at display during the game against Australia. He hit an unbeaten 102 to help England register a clinical win. He finished with 184 runs to his name with an average of 92. With the ball, he did not get to bowl a lot but ended up with a cumulative of 3 wickets to his name. 7. Sarfraz Ahmed (C & WK) – Pakistan Sarfraz Ahmed of Pakistan. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images) Sarfraz Ahmed was arguably the best skipper in the tournament. He was taken aback by the way his boys were battered in their first game against India. Since then, he has backed his boys to see them as the eventual champions. He took his decisions wholeheartedly and backed his players. This was evident when he went for a review against Jonny Bairstow in the very first over of the semi-final just because his bowler Junaid Khan believed it was out. A similar situation beckoned when Shadab Khan wanted a review against Yuvraj Singh in the big finals. On the personal front, there was a game when he showed his mettle with the bat. Chasing a modest 237, Sarfraz guided his team to a win in the virtual quarterfinal against Sri Lanka with an unbeaten 61. He surely deserves a spot in this dream team of Champions Trophy. 8. Adil Rashid – England England’s Adil Rashid celebrates with teammates. (Photo by LINDSEY PARNABY/AFP/Getty Images) Coming in to the tournament, English leggie Adil Rashid was not even sure of a spot in the playing eleven. He was not a regular face in the starting eleven of the English side in the ODI series leading up to the Champions Trophy. However, come the big tournament, the team beckoned the services of the big spinner. Rashid finished as the leading wicket taker among all the spinners in the tournament. There was absolutely nothing on offer for the spinners but Rashid finished as the fifth leading wicket taker in the tournament. He finished with 7 wickets to his name in the 3 matches that he played. He bowled with an economy of 4.73 and had the best figures of 4/41. 9. Bhuvneshwar Kumar – India Bhuvneshwar Kumar of India celebrates the wicket of Mahmudullah of Bangladesh. (Photo by Harry Trump – IDI/IDI via Getty Images) In the finals against Pakistan, the Indian bowlers were going for a plenty of runs as the Pakistani batsmen made merry. But there was a certain Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the lineup who had only conceded 11 runs in his first 6 overs! He had shown a similar spectacle in the semis against Bangladesh as well. Bowling the 48th over, Bhuvneshwar ended up bowling 5 dot balls in the over to show his class with the ball. He was effective with the new ball and with the old ball alike. Bhuvneshwar ended up as India’s leading wicket taker in the tournament and the sixth overall. He finished with 7 wickets to his name in 5 matches. He bowled with an economy rate of 4.63 – the second best among the top 10 leading wicket takers in the tournament (Imran Tahir’s 4.32 being the best). 10. Hasan Ali – Pakistan CARDIFF, WALES – JUNE 14: Pakistan bowler Hasan Ali celebrates after dismissing England batsman Ben Stokes during the ICC Champions Trophy semi final between England and Pakistan at SWALEC Stadium on June 14, 2017 in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images) Young Pakistani pacer Hasan Ali was the find of the tournament with the ball. The 23 year old pacer bowled as the first change bowler for his captain. Every time he was introduced into the attack, Hasan provided a breakthrough. He took two consecutive 3-wicket hauls in two knockout games in the lead up to the finals. He was awarded the Man of the Match in the semis where he took the two big wickets of Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes. Hasan Ali finished as the leading wicket taker of the tournament to win the Golden Ball. He finished with 13 wickets in 5 matches with an average of 14.69 and economy rate of 4.29. 11. Mohammad Amir – Pakistan LONDON, ENGLAND – JUNE 18 : Mohammad Amir of Pakistan shouts as he dismisses Rohit Sharma of India during the ICC Champions Trophy final match between India and Pakistan at the Kia Oval cricket ground on June 18, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Philip Brown/Getty Images) Mohammad Amir’s deserves a spot in the list for the sole reason of being the tormentor of India in the finals. Team India had a very good chance of winning the finals and chasing 338 on the board. This looked possible due to the top three heavyweights of the Indian batting order. But on the day, Amir cleaned up the trio. He dismissed Rohit Sharma for a duck in the very first over and then dismissed the chase master Kohli in his second over. When he dismissed Dhawan later in the innings, he knew he had sealed the game for Pakistan. Amir’s 3/16 in the finals won the match for his side and helped the team etch their name in the history books of cricket.

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