ICC World Cup 2019: Match 17, Australia vs Pakistan – Dream11 Fantasy Team based on Stats

Australia will look to bounce back against Pakistan after their defeat to India in a high-scoring game. Their bowling that looked quite strong after their first two games of the tournament, got breached by India. The Virat Kohli-led team became the first side to post 350+ total in a World Cup game against Australia. The batting performance might boost the confidence of the Aussies who saw through the brilliant opening spell of the Indian pace duo and ended up only 36 runs short of the target.

The defending champions would be starting as favourites against Pakistan whom they defeated 14 times in their previous 15 ODI meetings. However, Pakistan are sky high after sneaking through to a 14-run win over the World No.1 and the hosts, England. They were annihilated by the short ball tactics of Windies in their first game but bounced back to post a match-winning total of 348/8 against England.

Here we bring you the Dream11 Fantasy team based on the stats of the players:

Wicket-Keeper:

Sarfaraz Ahmed and Alex Carey are two players in the wicket-keepers category for this game. Both have decent returns in their recent matches as both the keeper-batsmen have scored two fifties from their last five ODI innings. However, Sarfaraz is a better option at the moment as the Pakistan captain will bat higher in the line-up compared to Carey.

Batsmen:

Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq have been amongst runs ever since they arrived in England. The duo scored 295 and 238 runs respectively in their previous five ODIs including a century. Usman Khawaja’s fortunes in the ODI cricket have changed in 2019 as he is the highest run-getter in 2019 in this format. In the previous five ODI innings, Usman has 230 runs with help of two fifties. Aaron Finch and Haris Sohail have 200 and 207 runs respectively in their last five ODI innings but Sohail might not play this game.

All-rounders:

Among the five players in the all-rounders category, only two players have scored over 150 runs in the last five ODIs. Glenn Maxwell has 200 runs with two half-centuries while Mohammad Hafeez amassed 176 runs with two fifties. Shoaib Malik has 144 runs from his previous five ODIs but will be batting quite lower against the Aussies. Imad Wasim and Marcus Stoinis have six wickets a piece in the recent games but neither of them will be in the playing XI.

Bowlers:

Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc are well known for their wicket-taking ability in the ODI format and their form suggests that they could be top pickings in this game. The Australian pace duo picked up 11 wickets apiece in their last five ODIs. Shaheen Afridi and Kane Richardson have eight wickets each to their name from last five ODI innings.

But neither of the two are likely to be part of the playing XIs during the game in Taunton. Shahdab Khan has six wickets from the last five ODIs and could be a threat to the Australian batsmen if the ball turns. Mohammad Amir has bagged seven wickets from his last five ODIs including five in two games in this tournament.