APL 2018 - Flop XI of the tournament

It was a pretty decent start for the Afghanistan Premier League (APL), which despite failing to draw huge crowds into the stadiums, provided some good quality cricket. It also gave great exposure to some young and budding Afghan cricketers, who are trying to make it big in the International circuit.

But the tournament didn’t provide great memories for a lot of cricketers who were expected to do well. Some senior International cricketers and some local talented superstars, who hogged quite a lot of limelight before the start of the tournament, were pretty underwhelming on the field.

Here’s a small analysis on those players who failed to live up to the expectations and eventually, didn’t help their team’s cause.

1. Brendon McCullum (Kandahar Knights)

An absolute legend of the game, this is one name which no one expects in a list like this. But Brendon McCullum was a country mile away from playing his best cricket. The Kiwi dynamite failed to impress and owing to the great reputation he had, skipper Asghar Afghan played him in all the games but registered just one fifty.

A lot more was expected from a player of his stature. He eventually registered 158 runs in the eight games he played and in all these games, the Kiwi cricketer batted in the top three. He did have enough chances to make it big, but his level of cricket has certainly deteriorated over the course of time.