Last Updated on 3 years by Charbel Coorey
Cricket News: Most disappointing team in the T20 World Cup? Fans have their say | Fans have their say on underperforming teams in T20 WC
After a number of debates and predictions heading into the T20 World Cup, the final four has been set. Pakistan, England, Australia and New Zealand have qualified for the Semi Finals, who, alongside South Africa, were the most consistent teams in the tournament.
Pakistan finished as the only team with a perfect five wins from five matches. Babar Azam’s side were superb right from the beginning, displaying the kind of motivation and drive that they promised everyone before the tournament. England produced great cricket to confirm their passage to the Semi Finals with a game to spare, while Australia and New Zealand were efficient in times of need.
However, with the strong performers were disappointing ones. CricBlog put out a question on Twitter asking fans to name their most disappointing team of the tournament to date, with three teams dominating the responses.
Fans have their say on the most disappointing team in the T20 World Cup
India was a common answer even before their fate was officially sealed. Heading into the tournament as the favourites, India’s heavy defeats to Pakistan and New Zealand respectively were too much to come back from as they had to rely on other results to go their way.
In the end, India missed out on the Semi Finals despite winning their last three matches comfortably. They seemed to play within themselves in the early part of the tournament, seeking to choose the safe route rather than take the game on. Going forward, India will need to assess and fix that aspect of their T20 cricket, along with sorting out their plans when batting first.
West Indies were also a big disappointment. The defending champions, who boast so much power and depth, finished the tournament with just one victory. And, they could have easily ended up with no wins as they only beat Bangladesh by the skin of their teeth.
Their powerplay batting was disastrous, and they never got going with the bat after the 55-all out debacle against England. They were thrashed by South Africa and Australia, and fell well short against Sri Lanka as well. It was certainly not the ideal way to send out Dwayne Bravo and Chris Gayle after great careers respectively.
Bangladesh also disappointed greatly. Arguably even more so than West Indies and India.
The Tigers came into the tournament ranked sixth in the world after series wins against Zimbabwe away, followed by Australia and New Zealand at home. However, Bangladesh were horribly out of their depth in this tournament, losing all five matches in the Super 12s after losing to Scotland in the first round. They were unable to adjust to the UAE conditions after a diet of slow, turning tracks in Mirpur, and their fielding was abysmal too.
They surrendered meekly against South Africa and Australia, getting rolled for 84 and 73 respectively. There is a lot of thinking for Bangladesh to do if they are to make a mark in ICC tournaments going forward.
