Asia Cup 2023: Top 5 batting performances in the tournament

The Asia Cup 2023 ended on September 17, 2023, with India defeating Sri Lanka in a crushing performance in the final in Colombo. This was India’s 8^th overall Asia Cup title and 7^th title in 50-overs format tournament. For India, Shubman Gill finished with the most runs in 302 in 6 matches with two half-centuries and one century with an average of 75.50 and strike-rate of 93.49. Kusal Mendis might have failed in the final, but he made 270 runs, while his teammate Sadeera Samarawickrama accumulated 215 runs in the tournament.

Babar Azam of Pakistan made 207 runs with the majority of them coming against Nepal, where he scored 151. To complete the top 5 most run-getters in the Asia Cup 2023, Mohammad Rizwan came in at 5 with 195 runs to his name with a best of 86* in the crunch match against Sri Lanka. 

However, the focus is on the best knocks in the tournament and many knocks made careers of young guns and veterans, showed that they still have it in them. 

Here are the Top 5 best batting performances in the Asia Cup 2023:

5. Shakib Al Hasan (BAN)- 80 vs IND 

Shakib Al Hasan might be on the wrong side of 30 for Bangladesh, but he led the team brilliantly. Unfortunately for them, the Tigers just couldn’t start well against Pakistan in the Super 4s encounter and then lost to Sri Lanka as well to exit the race of the final.

But they had one more match in hand against eventual winners India and Shakib Al Hasan showcased the reason why he is considered to be the greatest all-rounder in ODIs. Batting first, Bangladesh posted 265/8 despite being 59/4 at one stage, and all because of Shakib Al Hasan. The captain rebuilt the Tigers’ innings with a sublime knock of 80 in 85 balls.

He not only negotiated the spinners well in the middle overs, but before that, the left-hander had overcome the rampaging Indian pacers. He hit 6 fours and 3 sixes in his knock showing that he could balance between aggression and defence well. Shakib then returned 1/43 with the ball and marshalled his troops well as Bangladesh ended the tournament on a good note with a win.