England won the World Cup for the first time after beating New Zealand in Sunday’s thrilling final at Lord’s, bringing the curtain down on a dramatic event featuring some superb individual performances.
AFP Sport names its team of the tournament:
Rohit Sharma (India)
The 32-year-old emerged as the tournament’s star batsman, making history by becoming the first player to hit five hundreds in a single World Cup – a scintillating run that included three successive centuries against England, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Sharma, the tournament’s leading scorer, totalled 648 runs, just short of Sachin Tendulkar’s World Cup record of 673 scored during the 2003 edition.
Jason Roy (England)
England did not look the same without their go-for-broke opener when he was missing for three matches after suffering a torn hamstring. With Roy, who scored 443 runs at an average of 63.28, restored to the line-up, England’s confidence was back and, with it, the aggressive style that has served them so well over the past four years.
David Warner (Australia)
Warner is one of only four Australians to pass the 500-run mark at a single World Cup, joining Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting, who both made their runs at the 2007 event, and his 2019 captain Aaron Finch. The 32-year-old finished with 647 runs and registered the highest individual score in this year’s World Cup when he made 166 against Bangladesh – his prolific form at least partially healing his reputation after returning from suspension following last year’s ball-tampering scandal.
Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh)
Showing why he is ranked as the world’s top all-rounder in ODIs, Shakib made the most of his promotion to the number three position, accumulating 606 runs and also picking up 11 wickets.
Kane Williamson (New Zealand)
The unflappable Black Caps batsman scored 578 runs in the tournament – the most by a captain in a World Cup, going past Mahela Jayawardene’s mark of 548 in 2007. He was named man of the tournament, but that will not erase the heartache of his team’s defeat in the final.
Ben Stokes (England)
Man of the match in the final with an unbeaten 84, Stokes was the ninth-highest run scorer in the tournament despite coming in at five in the batting order, with 465 runs. Stokes also proved handy with the ball, taking seven wickets, and produced one of the catches of the tournament in the opening game to dismiss South Africa’s Andile Phehlukwayo.
Alex Carey (Australia)
Confident with the gloves and capable of explosive hitting, the 27-year-old Carey was the tournament’s most eye-catching wicketkeeper-batsman and by the semi-final he had been promoted to number five in the batting order as a reward for his composed displays.
Mitchell Starc (Australia)
Mitchell Starc finished as the tournament’s leading wicket taker with 27, in the process setting a new record for most wickets at a single World Cup.
The lethal left-arm quick’s haul broke the previous record of 26 held by retired Australia paceman Glenn McGrath.
Jofra Archer (England)
Barbados-born paceman Archer took 20 wickets to underline why England were so keen to rush him into the squad. His fiery spells were crucial to England’s victory – no-one took more wickets for the champions – and fittingly he bowled the Super Over that sealed the trophy in a final to remember.
Lockie Ferguson (New Zealand)
Ferguson’s 3-50 in the final made him the second-highest wicket taker in the tournament with 21 in just nine games at an impressive average of 19.47
It meant he outshone his more celebrated team-mate Trent Boult, who finished with 17 wickets.
Jasprit Bumrah (India)
With his awkward bowling action, Bumrah will never earn many style points, but the paceman makes up for that with a potent combination of speed and accuracy that helped him top the India charts with 18 wickets.
