When T20 Cricket World Cup returned after a five-year hiatus, everyone was fired up. Fans expected their beloved players to repeat their past heroics. Apparently, it didn’t turn out that way. T20 WC 2021 saw a plethora of big-ticket players misfiring, and here, we’ll look at eleven such star players who underperformed.
1. Chris Gayle
Christopher Henry Gayle hails himself as ‘The Universe Boss’. But nothing that he did in this World Cup qualified as bossy. T20 format’s Don Bradman finally showed signs of ageing and didn’t look match fit. Scores of 13, 15, 4, 12, and 1 speak the same story. His cricketing career is nearing an end.
2. Quinton de Kock (wk)
Quinton’s finest achievement this World Cup? Showing unwillingness to take knee. With the bat in hand, de Kock could gather just 69 runs off four innings, averaging just 17.25 runs.
Expected to be South Africa’s lead batter in the showpiece event, de Kock could barely bat. He’ll keep wickets though.
3. Glenn Maxwell
‘The Big Show’ came off a stupendous IPL season for Royal Challengers Bangalore. So much was expected off him, especially since ongoing T20 World Cup was being held at the same grounds as IPL 2021. But the aussie superstar left much to be desired, scoring a total of 29 runs, spread across five innings.
4. Avishka Fernando
This super talented batsman from Sri Lanka has showed glimpses of his natural talent time and again. Still, his WC campaign was completely horrendous. In four outings with the bat, Fernando averaged a meagre 5. His scores read 4, 13, 3, and 0. Overconfidence? Nervousness? Lethargy? One can only guess.
5. Kieron Pollard (c)
The Windies won only a solitary match this World Cup and a lot of it has to do with Pollard. He was dud as a leader. Un-Pollard as a batsman. 90 runs off eighty-four deliveries from someone who can clear boundaries at will is definitely not good enough.
He backed underperforming veterans on the basis of past reputation. Went wicket-less as a bowler. The big-ticket player who underperformed in every aspect of the game… Definitely the team’s captain.
6. Hardik Pandya
India’s heartthrob who is touted as the nation’s future finisher and Dhoni’s successor with the bat, Hardik let the whole country down. He struggled against quality attacks of New Zealand and Pakistan. Most of his ‘runs’ came off edges and mistimed hits.
However, one may argue that his 35*(13) against Afghanistan was a piece of brilliance. But there too, Naveen Haq helped him with slot-balls.
7. Andre Russell
The Dre Russ barely turns the heat up in national colours. Still, a couple of good knocks were expected from franchise cricket’s most feared name. However, he misfired bigtime. Five individual knocks worth 25 in total, with two ducks to top it off. Surely, Andre Russell could not have performed any worse.
8. Mohammad Shami
Md. Shami made the headlines and faced heavy criticism after getting smoked for 43 runs against India’s arch-rivals Pakistan. While Shami did take 3 wickets each against Scotland and Afghanistan, he went wicket-less at 10 an over against New Zealand and Namibia combined.
9. Mustafizur Rahman
Apparently, Rahman fared better than every other player in this eleven. He was fairly economical. But he was expected to be Bangladesh’s primary wicket-taker on United Arab Emirates’ double-paced wickets and considering that, Mustafizur under-delivered: He managed just 2 wickets off five Super-12 matches.
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10. Dushmantha Chameera
Just like Mustafizur, Chameera was expected to take wickets and lead Lankan pace-battery. However, he picked just four wickets and only one of them was an in-form batter. Moreover, he went for more than 10rpo in four of the five matches he played in, denting Sri Lanka’s chances heavily.
11. Varun Chakravarthy
Coming off two brilliant season for Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders, Varun was expected to provide crucial breakthroughs. Rather, Varun failed to take any wicket in three games he featured in. Therefore, he was benched for all the remaining clashes.