Pakistan has topped the chart of most searched teams playing in the ongoing ICC World Cup despite not performing well, a latest study by global online giant Google said.
“Despite two humiliating defeats against India and the West Indies, Pakistan team still continues to dominate search influence and continues to remain the top searched team from the tournament,” Google said in the study.
Pakistan is closely followed by India, West Indies, England and Australia as the other most searched teams in Google search.
The analysis of online trends shows that among the minnows, Afghanistan leads in global search interest and is followed by Bangladesh, Ireland, and United Arab Emirates.
Google said the searches are not just limited to performance, fans are also obsessed about physical characteristics of players.
“Indian fans searched online for the exact height of Pakistan pacer Mohammad Irfan and globally fans searched for information around James Taylor’s height.
The search query, “How tall is James Taylor” peaked forty times higher than before as Taylor made his appearance on the field,” it added.
Also, Indian Vice-Captain Virat Kohli’s hair style has seen a huge spike in terms of online search queries since the beginning of this World Cup, the trends showed.
Google said Chris Gayle, who scored a double-ton in this World Cup, is the most searched West Indian player for both his athletic and artistic talents but apparently “Chris Gayle Dance” is something the South Asian fans just love searching for.
“Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene caught the fancy of the fans when his bat broke into two pieces while facing a delivery against Afghanistan pacer Shapoor Zadran, driving an immediate spike in global search interest,” it added.
The study of the trends further depicted that after Sachin Tendulkar was caught taking a selfie during India’s match with South Africa, searches for him crossed those for both Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli who were battling it out in the middle.