Disappointments of the T20 World Cup 2026 Group Stage
ICC T20 World Cup 2026
It's been two weeks since the much-awaited T20 World Cup 2026 has been in operation. Hosted in the sub-continent jointly by the cricketing giants India and the Lankan lions, this edition of the World Cup has given us numerous classic cricketing moments that will be remembered for a long time. The tournament has been filled with exciting highs and some disappointing lows. The highlight of this tournament has definitely been how the low-ranked cricketing nations have taken the fight to the established teams. They have put on a brave face and never looked afraid of the task at hand giving us a number of close games rather than the one-sided match-ups which everyone expected. On the other hand their inability to win over crunch moments have allowed the top-ranked sides to sneak some nervy wins. If not for these mistakes we would have seen a few more thrilling upsets.
We will now talk about the disappointments of the World Cup so far after the end of Group Stage. The below list includes the different negatives I found in the first 40 games.
Netherlands and USA let a golden opportunity slip away on Day 1
Catch drops at critical moments cost Netherlands and USA a chance to cause opening day upset
Before the first ball was bowled in this year's World Cup, many expected the Associate sides to just roll over against the stronger sides. The first day shattered all such assumptions as Netherlands and USA came hard on the Pakistan and India respectively taking them by surprise. The early punches thrown by these sides amazed both the Asian teams but they recovered just in time to steal a win.
After opting to bowl in the very first match of this World Cup on a slow pitch at the Sinhalese Sports Club, Pakistan managed to eke out a couple of wickets within the powerplay. Netherlands kept losing regular wickets but they kept the scoring rate over 8 until the 15th over thanks to contributions by both Bas de Leede and their captain Scott Edwards. Once Edwards departed to Abrar in the 16th over, the Dutch batters lost the plot only managing a total of 147, about 10-15 runs short of a par score. The Pakistani openers started in fine fashion as they raced to 61-2 in the powerplay and scored 98 at the end of the eleventh over leaving less than a run-a-ball with eight wickets in hand. A double wicket maiden from Paul Van Meekeren sent a familiar panic down the Pakistani batters as they scored only 21 runs off the next 7 over losing 5 wickets in the process.
With 29 needed from 12 balls, Netherlands fancied their chances but all that went downhill when Max O'Dowd dropped a simple catch of Faheem Ashraf at long-on 2 balls into the 19th over. Ashraf clubbed Logan Van Beek for 24 runs and then finished the game with three balls to spare. Sahibzada Farhan top scored with 47 but Faheem Ashraf's 29* off 11 gave Pakistan an edgy win leaving Netherlands with a sense of regret. They did win their next game against Namibia but lost to both USA and India closing out a difficult journey for the Men in Orange.
The night game was one of the most anticipated ones for the home fans as the defending champions were starting their campaign against the underdogs USA who had defeated and knocked out Pakistan in the Group Stage of the 2024 World Cup. The invincible India had not lost a single series post the 2024 World Cup and they were the hot favorites coming into this tournament. USA had a perfect start as Ali Khan removed Abhishek Sharma for a duck. Things changed dramatically in the 6th over when Shadley Van Schalkwyk got Tilak, Ishan and Shivam Dube in the same over. India further slipped to 77-6 in the 13th over. But they still had their captain Surya Kumar Yadav batting at the other end. Shubham Ranjane let go of a simple caught and bowled chance in the 10th over of Surya, something that was going to bite the USA later.
The momentum started to shift in the 16th over when Saurabh Netravalkar gave away 21 runs in his third over. Unfortunate injuries to Ali Khan and Ranjane meant Netravalkar had to bowl the last over and Surya again went bang-bang hitting behind the wicket and showcasing all his shots as he took 21 again off the over to push his team's score to 161 after struggling for the most part of the innings. The target seemed too much for the USA batters on a pitch assisting both seam and spin. They lost three wickets in the powerplay and scored only 49 at the end of 10 overs. Shubham Ranjane tried hard with the bat scoring 37 off 22 balls but his team lost by a margin of 29 runs. The Surya drop proved too costly for USA otherwise they were in font seat to win the game.
England survive barely against Nepal and Ireland gift the game to Sri Lanka
England came into this tournaments as one of the contenders with a run of 10 wins in 11 matches. Their first match was against Nepal in Mumbai, a team they had never played in International cricket and so everyone thought this would be too easy for a team who became the first full-member nation to score 300 in T20I cricket. Little did we know what Nepal would bring to the table. Mind you, Nepal are the first team in all T20s to score 300 in 2023.
Opting to bat on a docile Wankhede pitch, England posted a total of 184. They lost Phil Salt early and then Jos Buttler nicked behind to a lovely delivery from the promising Nandan Yadav which bounced a little extra. Nepal's spinners kept striking at regular internals never allowing England to run away with the game until the last over bowled by Karan KC. Will Jacks who is a top-order batter in domestic criket has been a designated finisher for the English white ball side for a while now. He hit Karan for three sixes on the off-side collecting a total of 21 runs from the over and ended up with 39* off 18 balls. Nepali openers expressed themselves early as Khushal Bhurtel collected early boundaries in the first three overs. Liam Dawson and Will Jacks both got a wicket in their first over as the scoreboard read 47-2 after 6 overs with both openers removed.
This is when captain Rohit Paudel and superstar all-rounder Dipendra Singh Airee started stitching a crucial partnership. The plan was clear, get a boundary or two in each over and keep rotating the strike. Both of them played with intent taking on Adil Rashid, England's best white-ball spinner scoring 42 off his three overs. Their partnership of 82 runs ended in the 14th over as both of them fell in consecutive overs leaving Nepal a daunting 56 off 24 balls. It was now the turn of their 25-year old prodigy Lokesh Bam to show the world their Nepali spirit of never giving up. Bam hit two fours in the 17th and then took on Jofra Archer hitting him for two successive sixes as the 18 over went for 22 runs. Luke Wood bowled a poor 19th over under pressure which went for 14 runs including three wides but delivered a significant blow of his last ball removing left-handed Gulsan Jha.
Nepal now need only 10 off the last over but Sam Curran who has been their designated death bowler in T20Is recently delivered 6 yorkers, giving away only 5 runs helping England escape with a close 4 run win. Nepal's World Cup spiraled as they lost convincingly against both Italy and West Indies but found their elusive World Cup win against Scotland in their last group fixture. Their star leg-spinner Sandeep Lamicchane had a tournament to forget taking only 1 wicket in four games but all-rounder Dipendra Singh Airee top scored with 169 runs at a Strike Rate of 144.45 and also bowled with the best economy of 6.85 in the team. In the bowling department, Nandan Yadav stood out with his hard lengths and the skills to bowl in both powerplay and the death. Yadav needs a bit of polish and he can be a real force for Nepal in the future.
A lot of the surprise elements sprung in the first two days of the World Cup. Ireland and Sri Lanka set foot in Premadasa Stadium, Colombo for their first match where Ireland won the toss and decided to bowl. It was not a typical slow Premadasa pitch, it was hard and good for batting. Sri Lanka attacked early scoring 50 in the powerplay for the loss of opener Kamil Mishara. Captain Paul Stirling introduced spin as the Sri Lankan batters went into a shell. There was no turn on offer but George Dockrell and Gareth Delaney tied them down for the next ten overs which saw the score only 54 runs. Dockrell varied his pace beautifully and held his line to give 17 in his four overs with two wickets to follow. Suddenly, with the arrival of Kamindu Mendis, Ireland started to fumble. They dropped 3 catches in the 17th over 1 in 18th over, a few waist-high no-balls and wides in the 19th as Sri Lanks scored 59 off the last four over, ending up with 163 in the 20 overs.
The Ireland batters couldn't cope with the change in momentum as their captain got out for a sorry 6 off 13 balls. There was a brief period where both Lorcan Tucker and Harry Tector tried to take the game deep but they could not handle the Sri Lankan spin trio. Wanindu Hasaranga suffered a tournament-ending hamstring injury after his first over but came back and finished with figures of 3-25. The Sri Lankan spinners bowled 12 overs and gave away only 76 taking 6 wickets as an Ireland collapse saw last 8 wickets fall for 38 as they lost the game by a margin of 20 runs.
Ireland surrendered completely against Australis to lose by 67 runs. They did score the highest score of the World Cup so far against Oman as Lorcan Tucker, captaining in place of injured Paul Stirling scored 94* and George Dockrell got 35* off 9 balls with the team scoring 235. Oman was bundled out for just 139. Their last game against Zimbabwe was washed out. George Dockrell was the only stand-out player for Ireland with both bat and ball.
Wildcard entry Scotland fail to crunch big moments
Underprepared Scotland failed to clinch crunch moments in a below par journey
The Scottish team was never supposed to be here. They were beaten by both Italy and Jersey at the European Qualifiers where they finished fourth vacating the two qualifying spots for Netherlands and the Azzuri. They had played only 10 T20I games in the lead-up to this World Cup. So when the Bangladesh cricket board decided to withdraw from this World Cup, it gave a lifeline for the highest ranked non-participating Scotland team with a place in Group B. They were slotted with West Indies, England, Nepal and their nemesis Italy with the first three matches scheduled in Kolkata and the last match against Nepal in Mumbai.
The last minute invite meant there was a nervous urgency as the Scotland cricket Board had to arrange a squad of 15, jerseys, sponsors and make VISA arrangements for their players plus coaching staff last-minute. Once everything was in place, Scotland played Afghanistan and Namibia in the Warm-up games at Bengaluru losing both.
Led by Richie Berrington, Scotland played West Indies on the opening day at Eden Gardens. They showed rustiness with the ball first letting the Windies batters slip from 66-2 in the first ten to a total of 182 with Shimron Hetmyer scoring 64. Then with the bat, Berrington and the Kiwi import Tom Bruce had a crucial 78-run partnership leaving a solid platform for their lower order. But the wicket of Berrington triggered a slide of 32-7. Romario Shepherd took a hattrick and West Indies won the match by 35 runs. Their next game against Italy was a chance for them to set things straight which they did easily by scoring this edition's first 200+ score helped by George Munsey's 84 and Michael Leask's 22* off 5. Leask then came back taking a wicket of his first ball to finish with 4-17 taking the Player of the Match award and gift his side a comfortable 73-run win.
England came next for a evening fixture and opted to bowl. Both Berrington and Bruce combined together again and put on 71 runs hitting Dawson's and Rashid's first three overs for 32 and 34 respectively. Another day, another collapse and Scotland were bundled out for only 152 losing their last 7 for 39 this time. Oliver Davidson's 20* allowed them some breathing space. The bowlers tried their best as all of them chipped in to leave England 86-4 at 10.4 over but Tom Banton' 63 not out was enough to bail England out. Another 20 runs would have made things interesting particularly after the start Scotland but the lower order failed miserable for them in all four games. Scotland scored 170 in a night game at Mumbai against Nepal led by Michael Jones' 71 but another lower order failure and a masterful death bowling performance meant the Scottish were again a few runs short.
The pitch was still good for batting. Nepal's openers scored 74 runs in 9 overs. Leask got a wicket of the first ball again and bowled an impactful spell taking all the three wickets to fall but the other bowlers failed to put any pressure. Dipendra Singh Airee took on Leask for 20 runs in his last over enroute to a 23 ball fifty, his second of the competition. Scotland's seamers could not replicate what Nepal's Sompal Kami and Nandav Yadav did with their slower balls and Gulsan Jha hit winning boundary in the last over to send the whole Wankhede into a frenzy with the Nepali fans taking the house down.
The lack of preparation was evident for Scotland as they couldn't grab all the big moments in their three losses after being in a comfortable position. Captain Richie Berrington and openers George Munsey & Michael Jones led the batting but the lower order became their Archilles heel. Michael Leask was their best bowler taking 9 wickets with an economy of 7.63 and Brad Currie bowled with a decent economy of 6.85. Young Oliver Davidson impressed with his all-round abilities having noteworthy outings against both West Indies and England.
Oman surrender, Namibia dishearten
Oman and Namibia were the only two teams lacking spark in this year's World Cup
These two teams were grouped together in 2024 and played a thrilling Super Over in their first game which Namibia won but lost all other matches poorly. Both the teams were expected to labor this time but in contrast to the other Associate nations there was no fight from both these teams in all the four fixtures.
Oman cricket team was dealing with their own difficulties post the 2024 World Cup when most of the squad that participated in the last editions walked out against their cricket board for payment defaults. The board in response decided to cancel their contracts and a brand new team with a few experiences faces has been playing Internationals for Oman since that incident. Led by Jatinder Singh, both their batters and bowlers were exposed in all group games. The team had the worst economy, bowling average, bowling strike rate, batting average, run rate and balls per dismissals among the 20 participating teams. Oman's batting scores read 103 all out, 120-9, 139 all out and 104 all out. They bowled first in two games conceding 225 and 235, the two highest scores of the tournament. Australia chased the target of 105 in 9.4 overs while Zimbabwe chased down 104 in 13.3 overs. Captain Jatinder Singh had scores of 5,1,7, and 17. None of the players impressed in what was a horrible World Cup for the Asian country.
Namibia made a strong case for themselves when they defeated Ireland and Sri Lanka in consecutive World Cups of 2021 and 2022. Those golden days are now way in the past as other Associate nations have moved ahead of them in recent times. They are still ranked 15th in the ICC T20I rankings but their performance did not justify that at all. Namibia's Jan Frylinck and Nicol Loftie-Eaton started strongly against Netherlands with the bat but they kept losing wickets regularly ending up with only 156 which was easily chased by Bas De Leede's 72*. India hammered them by 93 runs although we did see an excellent spell from their captain Gerhard Erasmus who used the crease well and bowled some low-round arm deliveries taking 4-20. The death bowling was also impressive by Jan Smit who made a notable comeback after going for 38 runs in the first two. A surprising lack of intent against USA in the chase after a superb powerplay led to a 31-run loss and Pakistan dismissed Namibia by 102 runs in a must-win encounter.
Gerhard Erasmus was the only player with some substance that too only with the ball. Opener Lauren Steenkamp displayed good intent in the powerplay and Willem Myburgh's leg-spin excited me in the three matches he played. Myburgh can turn into a very talented spinner if he is given good coaching and develops a bit of control.
Both the teams now turn their attention to the 50-over World Cup qualifiers. Namibia is hosting the event next year along with South Africa & Zimbabwe and they will be desperate to qualify given they generally play much better in home conditions where they also defeated South Africa in a one-off T20I last year. Oman is placed better than Namibia in the ICC Cricket World Cup League Two and both teams will be hoping to improve their run in the competition for a direct place in the 2027 World Cup Qualifiers. In the T20I format, both team should now focus on the regional qualifier and then hope to put a better show in the 2028 T20 World Cup.
Jonathan Trott leaves the Afghanistan coaching dugout after a double Super over heartbreak
A devastated Afghanistan side plan to move forward after the departure of their compelling head coach Jonathan Trott
Afghanistan's rise in cricket has been one of the most inspiring stories of sports in recent times. From being an Associate side when they first made their T20 World Cup debut in 2010 to becoming a full member nation in 2017 and reaching the semi-finals of 2024 edition. Add to that the tense political situation at home, their transition has been jaw-dropping and the upcoming teams can seek their inspiration to move forward. A lot of the credit for their recent development has to go to their outgoing coach Jonathan Trott. After taking over the role of head coach in 2022, Trott has managed to transform this team into giant killers especially when it comes to the ICC tournaments.
Afghanistan had a dream run in the 2023 World Cup where they defeated teams like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and England but missed out narrowly on the semi-final spot. Then in the T20 World Cup 2024, Afghanistan first knocked out New Zealand in the group stage and then went on to shock Australia in the Super 8 finally securing their first semi-final spot after a win against Bangladesh. These performances didn't just stop there as the Afghans again gave England a goodbye in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. Some other bilateral wins against strong oppositions also followed his tenure.
Afghanistan's recent cricketing DNA has been modelled on Jonathan Trott's playing attitude. A solid top-order with one of the openers among Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran taking the responsibility to play long and then going hard in the death. Defined roles with the ball and using Azmatullah Omarzai's all-round skills in different phases of the game. Trott has managed to create warriors who are not afraid of the occasion in front of them and wants to give everything on the field. Hence, Afghanistan was considered as one of the premium sides for this year's edition particularly due to their form in the sub-continent.
They started the tournament strongly with the bat but New Zealand's Time Seifert and the middle-order ensured there were no early hiccups in Chennai. Next was a must-win game against the Proteas at Ahmedabad. They opted to bowl in the morning game but there plans went awry when Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton pressed on early accelerator. Their captain Rashid came in and removed both the batters in the same over displaying the same warrior tendency as Afghanistan made an excellent comeback with the ball limiting South Africa to just 187 after initial fears of 200+. A strong start in the powerplay saw them score 50 in the first 4 overs with Gurbaz batting deep in textbook fashion. His 84 off 42 put the team in a very strong position to chase but a flurry of wickets and Afghanistan were eight down chasing 19 off the last 9 balls.
Noor Ahmed started with a six but an unfortunate run-out meant the equation changed to 13 off 6 with just 1 wicket left. Kagiso Rabada thought he had secured a victory of the first ball but a front foot no-ball gave Afghanistan a lifeline. A six followed by another no-ball left Afghanistan needing just 2 off three balls. Both teams were feeling the pressure and a casual running by Fazalhaq Farooqi saw him run-out sending the game into this World Cup's first Super Over.
Azmat partnered by Gurbaz scored 17 against Lungi Ngidi. Farooqi thought he had done enough with South Africa needing 7 off 1 ball but Stubbs sent a low full-toss over Long-on for a six to send the game into a second Super Over. The game had ebbed and flowed from start to finish and the craziness poured over into the last two overs as well. Miller and Stubbs thought took Azmatullah for 23 runs next. Keshav Maharaj stepped in as he got Nabi caught off the second delivery after securing a dot on the first and out came Gurbaz to do the improbable, 24 off 4 balls. The game went beyond everyone's imagination when he hit three consecutive sixes and then forced a wide leaving the equation at 5 off 1 ball. But a pinpoint yorker forced a mistake from Gurbaz breaking the hearts of the Afghans as David Miller took the catch at point. An absolute mental game and easily the best ever in a T20I World Cup brought a painful end to Jonathan Trott's tenure as Afghanistan's coach.
They did manage to win their next two games against UAE and Canada with ease but could not progress into the Super 8. A disappointing Asia Cup followed by heartbreak at the T20 World Cup might act as a small hurdle but Trott had infused a fighting attitude and his soldiers will carry on with a smile. The team is bound to touch new heights with the talent coming though and we hope to see this side creating several new happy memories.
Bangladesh's withdrawal and the whole PCB boycott fiasco
Bangladesh cricket team cancelled their participation last-minute in this year's World Cup alluding to security worries
Sport has acted as a way to unite humanity and triumphing over politics numerous times in the past. Stories of the famous 1995 Rugby match after the apartheid ended in South Africa, the Iran vs USA football match of 1998 and many Olympic moments are examples of such heartwarming gestures. Even in cricket, South Africa's re-admission in 1991 and the famous India visit to Pakistan in 2004 have acted as a strong message of promoting peace.
So when Bangladesh decided to withdraw from this year's World Cup citing security concerns, it was a heartbreaking moment for any sports fan. The issue started when BCCI ordered Kolkata Knight Riders to remove Mustafizur Rahman from their IPL squad after he was selected in the IPL auction held in Dec 2025 for 9.2 crore. Things started to escalate when BCB chief Aminul Islam asked ICC to shift Bangladesh's games from India to Sri Lanka as they did not feel safe playing in India after the Mustafizur row. ICC responded saying their security assessment team have highlighted "low" to "moderate" threats for the Bangladesh team and there will be no venue change. Bangladesh cricket board volunteered to swap groups with Ireland keeping schedule same and move their games to Sri Lanka but a global ICC meeting saw them voted out with only Pakistan supporting Bangladesh's stance.
Bangladesh then decided to engage with their government and had a formal meeting with their national team but finally decided to withdraw as per the directive from the government. PCB then suddenly announced their decision to boycott the game against India in Colombo as per their own government's directive. The ICC was never going to accept this boycott as the India-Pakistan game is their most profitable game as per the broadcast numbers and hence these teams have always been drawn in the same group of any multi-nation tournament given these two teams don't play each other in bilateral matches. It's a well known fact that lately ICC has just worked as an entity of the BCCI rather than act as a impartial top governing body and the same behavior was observed during this affair. But honestly, even the BCB and PCB did not color themselves in honor with what followed.
Bangladesh sports president Asif Nazrul who had initially stated that the Bangladesh government had given orders to not send the team for the World Cup in India suddenly made a U-turn a few days later, saying that the decision of not going to the World Cup was taken by BCB and the players and not the central government. BCB then participated in discussions with PCB and ICC asked the Pakistan board to call off their boycott against India, a decision PCB agreed with and made a U-turn themselves. ICC in return did not impose any sanctions on the BCB and now Bangladesh’s newly appointed State Minister for Youth and Sports, Aminul Haque is keen to reset cricketing ties between the BCB and the BCCI. Hence, the strong messaging at the start of this whole issue by both the Boards became too soft by the end of it totally diminishing the impact of initial stand taken by both the boards.
The politics has entered cricket thanks to the BCCI who are now acting as a bully taking advantage of their standing in world cricket especially when it comes to generating revenue and gathering viewership. Pakistan was already boycotted from their bilateral agreements and now Bangladesh will also be included on the same. The ICC should be taking hard stands on these matters but they will continue to look away until Indian cricket helps creating profits for the top governing body. A global pushback is needed given the state of affairs right now or else the sport might become a weapon of International politics rather than a piece of entertainment for genuine fans.
Honorable mentions
The India-Pakistan marquee clash and Pakistan's form
After all the drama that unfolded behind the scenes, finally the two rivals faced each other in Colombo. Pakistan was banking hugely on the mystery provided by Usman Tariq with all the buzz around the spinner in the lead-up to the game. All that went to the bin as Ishan Kishan's whirlwind innings in the first 10 overs took the game away from Pakistan. Usman Tariq was introduced late in the innings and held his own but the match was out of Pakistan's reach by then.
Pakistan bowled 18 overs of spin as India posted 175 with Shaheen Afridi's 2 overs for 31 being the only pace-bowling in the first innings. Indian pacers Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah showed their mastery as Pakistan lost 3 wickets in the first two overs with the ball swinging miles forcing some poor shots from the top order. Babar Azam went for a horrible swat across the line and was bowled by Axar Patel and the whole team surrendered at 114 giving India a 61-run win.
Pakistan survived a scare early in the tournament as Netherlands could not complete a come-from-behind victory after being in pole position until the last two overs of the game. They did manage to defeat USA and Namibia by sizeable margins but Pakistan know they barely managed to make the Super 8 and their form has been quite poor despite having better knowledge of Sri Lankan conditions than most of the teams in this World Cup. They will hope to improve their middle order batting and pace bowling in the next round or it will be tough to make the knockouts this time.
Australia stunned in the first round of their least favorite format
The Aussies are the front-runners. This is the general understanding whenever there is an ICC multi-nation tournament in spite of their previous form, missing players and other off-field issues. But their team has underwhelmed in the T20 format for years now. A 2021 win is and a runners-up medal are their only notable results in the 9 editions of this competition so far.
Yet, this side led by Mitchell Marsh, was touted as the second favorites after India with the way they had played their recent cricket. Openers Marsh and Head followed by Tim David and dangerously experienced all-rounder Stoinis and Maxwell with the bowling led by Adam Zampa was the make up of this team. The pieces of the puzzle started to disperse once Pat Cummins and later Josh Hazlewood were ruled out of the tournament. Marsh suffered testicular bleeding in one of the warm-up sessions and Tim David also missed their first game hitting the squad with too many injuries at the same time. Australia started in classic Australian style brushing aside Ireland by 67 runs. Their next game against Zimbabwe changed the whole trajectory of the tournament completely. After so many close shaves we got our first big upset when the tall African pacers Blessing Muzarabani and Brad Evans bounced their top four in the powerplay and Australia fell short by 23 runs.
Australia then called up Steve Smith into the squad as a replacement but did not include him in the XI for the crucial game against Sri Lanka given his recent BBL form where he scored 299 runs in 6 innings at a Strike Rate of close to 168. And if that wasn't enough, they dropped their best batter of the first two games, Matt Renshaw without any logical reasoning keeping Cam Green at No.3. The all-rounder who bowled only 19 balls had scores of 21, 0 and 3 as the team capitulated to just 181 after being 104-0 in the first 8.2 overs. Pathum Nissanka blew away the bowling attack with a boundary-laden 100* as Sri Lanka chased down the target with 2 overs to spare.
The Australian fans in all honesty do not care much about the shortest format of the game which might save their team of a major embarrassment but there needs to be an honest assessment of this disappointing campaign at least from the management perspective. Some of the selection decisions before and during the tournament were baffling given the management knew they are up against tricky Sri Lankan conditions. Questions will also be asked of Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis going forward given the next World Cup will be played in Australia and New Zealand. Is their time over in International cricket or are they still part of their T20 plans?
England can't play pace, England can't play spin
After being blown away in the Ashes 4-1, the Brendon McCullum coached side played a three-match series in Sri Lanka winning all on contrasting wickets. With 11 wins in 12 games, Harry Brook led T20 side was earmarked as one of the top four teams.
Openers Phil Salt and Jos Buttler who were expected to have an explosive World Cup scored a total of 61 and 53 runs in the first four matches. The opening partnership in the four innings read 5, 38, 2, 21. The middle-order toiled consistently against spin in all four games. England could only escape the clutches of Nepal and Italy thanks to a death over burst from Will Jacks who scored 39* off 18 and 53* off 22, winning the Player of the Match on both occasions. Even against Scotland, if not for Tom Banton's 63*, things could have gone awry in a modest chase of 155.
The bowling group itself has been given breathing space thanks to Sam Curran's death bowling expertise against Nepal and Italy. Jofra Archer went for 90 in the first two games with Nepal absolutely destroying him in the last over to almost complete the run chase. He returned to form against Scotland but again leaked runs in the death to Italy's Grant Stewart. Adil Rashid's mystery has been solved easily by the Associate teams who have taken him for 121 runs in 11 overs. His spell against West Indies was reminiscent of the magician, Rashid is but the other teams have laid into him without any trouble. Jamie Overton and Sam Curran have been the only shining lights with the ball. It's a miracle that England have made it through to the next round with so many issues and they will look to iron them out as soon as possible with the next phase of the tournament taking them to Sri Lanka, a place they have been liking in recent years.
The ICC No.1 batter scores a hattrick of ducks
Coming into this tournament, one of the most talked-about players was the No.1 ranked Indian opener Abhishek Sharma. With a total of 1297 runs at a S/R of 194.74, all of them post the 2024 T20 World Cup, Abhishek had racked up these numbers against a number of quality bowling oppositions in varied conditions. Player of the Series consecutively in the Asia Cup and the Australia Tour Downunder, the southpaw had built his career on rapid starts, early onslaughts and maximum impact during his stay at the crease not caring about the reputation of the bowlers often carrying the team alone during a period when the captain Surya Kumar Yadav and then vice-captain Shubman Gill were not in great form.
So the general understanding was, Abhishek Sharma was going to take down the opponents especially the weaker teams in the early Group Stage of this competition. However, things could not have gone any worse than this as the dynamic batter has been dismissed for three consecutive ducks. The teams have attacked him with off-spin or a fielder deep on the off-side early for his out-of-crease pick up shot and he has not been able to work out a solution for the trap yet.
In the first game, Abhishek lofted his first ball off Ali Khan to the off-side and was caught at deep cover. After missing the next game due to food poisoning, Pakistan captain brought himself on in the first over and after trapping Sharma with three dot balls, forced him to go over the infield and dismissing him caught at mid-on. A similar ploy saw Netherlands introduce their new-ball specialist Aryan Dutt who started with two dots and then bowled a quicker arm ball that skid through and cleaned up his stumps. India are now through to the Super 8 and they will be hoping that Abhishek regains his original form to better their chances of securing the World Cup trophy.
ICC's continued reluctance of committing to Associate cricket
We finally have a World tournament in cricket after years where the lower ranked teams have given us competitive cricket against better teams consistently throughout the Group Stage. Nepal, USA, Italy, Scotland, Netherlands, Canada have all produced some exciting moments and even Zimbabwe, a less fancied full-member nation have ensured their professionalism has transferred into fierce performances on the field making this one of the closest World Cups in terms of the domination we have seen in the past by top-ranked nations.
All this has cultivated into more and more players, ex-players, officials raising their voice for the Associates and crying out loud for more opportunities against the full member nations. Players and experts not only from these Associate teams but even the established cricketing nations have dropped various suggestions on how the schedules can be worked out to make it more inclusive for these newer teams helping them get more and more exposure of such crunch-game situations in the future.
But all these voices have not rung a single bell in the deaf ears of the ICC until now since none of the office-bearers have given a single inclination towards growing the game outside of these multi-nation tournaments. If the goal is only making money, then it seems unlikely that any major shift is going to occur in near future but with plans of introducing cricket in the Olympics and making it popular across the globe, creating more and more opportunities for these Associates will only help to give this sport an exciting new shape at least in the shortest format. The T20 format was developed exactly for this reason and the ICC needs to make it happen so more viewers tune in from different countries to see a Namibia defeating South Africa or a Nepal win against West Indies giving us beautiful new memories to cherish.
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