ICC Champions Trophy 2017: From AB de Villiers to Ravichandran Ashwin, stars who flattered to deceive

The ICC Champions Trophy came to an end with Pakistan winning their maiden title on the back of some stellar performances by Hasan Ali, Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Amir. The Asian giants had qualified for the tournament as the lowest ranked team and comprehensively lost the first match of the tournament to rivals India by 124 runs. But they scripted an incredible comeback tale by beating Sri Lanka and South Africa in the group stage to qualify for the semis to start off, before smashing favourites England to set up a final with India which they won handsomely. The tournament also saw some impressive knocks from the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Tamim Iqbal and Joe Root among others while Josh Hazelwood, Bhuvneshawar Kumar and Imran Tahir produced some impressive bowling spells. A lot was expected from some of the established stars lining up at the tournament only for them to disappoint. Here’s a look at the stars who failed to shine at the ICC Champions Trophy: Martin Guptill [caption id=“attachment_3731431” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Martin Guptill has struggled to fill Brendon McCullum’s void in the New Zealand team. AP[/caption] One of only 5 men to score an ODI double century, Guptill has shown in the past that he has what it takes to take over from Brendon Mcullum at the opening slot. The Aucklander came into the tournament on the back of destructive 138-ball 180 against South Africa in their tour of New Zealand. But Guptill failed to get going in the Champions Trophy, as did many of the Kiwi batsmen, leaving captain Kane Williamson to lead the wage a lone battle. Jason Roy The South African-born English opener made a solid start to 2017 as he scored 3 fifties in the 3-match ODI series against India in January. However his form took a turn for the worse as he endured a difficult time in ODI series against the West Indies, Ireland and South Africa. His captain Eoin Morgan went on record to defend his place in the Champions Trophy side going as far as telling reporters that Roy would play the entire tournament. With scores of 1, 13 and 4 in the group stage, it wasn’t a surprise when Morgan dropped Roy in favour of Jonny Bairstow for the semis clash against Pakistan. AB de Villiers [caption id=“attachment_3731427” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] AB de Villiers had a poor ICC Champions Trophy with the bat . AP[/caption] Scores of 4, 0 and 16 are not what cricket fans are used to associate with AB de Villiers as his poor show at the Champions Trophy saw him slip to No 3 in the ICC ODI batsmen’s ranking behind Virat Kohli and David Warner. The destructive right hander had a decent start to the year slamming five half-centuries from 16 innings and he stated that South Africa were coming into the tournament having nothing to prove to anyone. However, the Proteas were knocked out in the group stage as their wait to win an ICC tournament continued. Ravichandran Ashwin [caption id=“attachment_3731453” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Ravichandran Ashwin had a tournament to forget despite India making their way to the final. AP[/caption] The Chennai-born bowler missed the IPL due to injury and his return to action didn’t go as he planned. As Virat Kohli opted to play 3 seamers and a spinner, Ashwin was on the bench for the first two matches of the tournament. After he came into the sdie from the third match, his performances were anything but special as he took one wicket from 3 games at an average of 167. Mustafizur Rahman Mustafizur Rahman burst into the ODI scene when he took 13 wickets against India during the 3-match ODI series in 2015. The pacer has since established himself as an integral part of the Bangladeshi bowling attack with 44 wickets in his career at an impressive average of 19.79. However, he couldn’t deploy his famed off-cutters as he’d wished too and he picked up only 1 wicket from his 4 matches at a woeful average of 183.