ICC World T20 Analysis

By Jai Elhance
The 2021 T20 World Cup is complete with Australia being crowned the champions. After many highs and lows for all the teams, here’s my analysis of this past tournament.

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The toss played a big factor in this tournament, especially in the evening games. With the dew setting in, a clear trend was seen that teams who chased were winning games and captains always wanted to chase after winning the toss.

Games won defending out of the total Super 12 games at that stadium

Sharjah: 6 / 9
Abu Dhabi: 4 / 11
Dubai: 1 / 13

The stats for Dubai are truly shocking. The only game won there while defending was between New Zealand and Scotland. In the game, New Zealand got away with just a 16 run victory.

Due to its short boundaries, Sharjah is an outlier. Dew doesn’t have too big of an effect at the ground. Some of the most high scoring games of the tournament were at this venue.

Australia won 6 out of 7 tosses and in all the tosses they won, Aaron Finch said that he wanted to bowl first. Every time Australia bowled first, they won the game. The one time Australia lost the toss, they were put in to bat first and they ended up losing the game. As well as Australia performed in this tournament, I do believe that the toss played a big factor.

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There’s just something about Australia when it comes to World Cups. They’ve won the ODI World Cup 5 times, and now they’ve won the T20 World Cup for the first time ever to make it 6 total World Cups.

The top and middle order batted really well for Australia. David Warner found some form after a horrid Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. Mitch Marsh also played some crucial knocks in the middle. Matthew Wade and Marcus Stoinis were good finishers throughout the tournament and played some very important innings. Though not in the best of form, Finch, Smith, and Maxwell were all integral parts in the side as well.

The decision to bat Mitch Marsh at 3 turned out to be a masterclass move from the Australians. Striking at 146 in this tournament, Marsh really had the freedom to go out there and express himself, especially with the batting to come.

Adam Zampa and Josh Hazlewood were the 2 key wicket takers for Australia. Both made it to the top 5 on the leading wickets takers list as they ended the tournament with 13 and 11 wickets respectively.

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Arguably the strongest team over the past couple of years, New Zealand once again fell short at the final hurdle. In the past 3 ICC events, New Zealand have always managed to make it to the finals.

1. 2019 ODI World Cup
2. World Test Championship 2021
3. 2021 T20 World Cup

All 3 of the finals were different formats and so New Zealand have really been one of the best all format teams in the past few years. They lost the ODI World Cup by boundary count in a tied super over. In the WTC Final, they beat India on the final day of the game. In the 2021 edition of the T20 World Cup, New Zealand once again found themselves in the finals, only to be stopped by the mighty Australians in their final battle.

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After defeating both India and New Zealand, Pakistan were the team to beat in this World Cup. They remained undefeated in the group stage before losing in the semi finals to the eventual champions, Australia.

Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan had great tournaments. Both made it to the top 3 run scorers of the tournament with 303 and 281 runs respectively. Both the openers caused problems for many different oppositions as they just kept on piling the runs.

Shaheen Afridi was impressive with the ball. He was very economical and was also wicket taking. The fast bowler was a consistent performer for Pakistan in this tournament.

Afridi’s figures in this tournament:

3/31 vs IND
1/21 vs NZ
1/22 vs AFG
0/36 vs NAM
1/24 vs SCO
1/35 vs AUS

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After winning their first 4 games, England were strong competitors for that champions title. Their streak was broken by a loss in their final game which was against South Africa.

I was very impressed by Jos Buttler who scored 269 runs at an average of 89.67 and strike rate of 151.12. He gave England quick starts and also scored a lot of runs, which is a perfect combination for any batsmen batting anywhere in the line up.

Moeen Ali was also a key part of England’s campaign. He was an important part of their line up with the bat, and with the ball he was very economical.

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South Africa were very unfortunate in this tournament. Even with 4 out of 5 wins in the league stage, they still failed to qualify for the playoffs. It’s very rare to see a team win 4 out of 5 and still not make it to the next stage. South Africa were ruled out on Net Run Rate with both England and Australia qualifying for the next stage.

Anrich Nortje lit up the stadiums in the UAE with his fast bowling. He picked up 9 wickets at an economy of just 5.38. The thing about Nortje is that he didn’t just do well against a couple of teams. He was consistently among the wickets throughout the tournament.

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India failed to qualify for the playoffs in an ICC event for the 1st time since 2012. Every year we have seen India qualify and then lose in the semis or finals, but this time you could say that that streak has ended, just not necessarily the way Indian fans would have wanted it to.

This was a disappointing tournament for India. They lost their first 2 games which were against Pakistan and New Zealand, and at that stage they were basically out of the race for the semi finals.

I feel that India didn’t really get their combination right with either bat or ball. There was constant chopping and changing, as there was in the 2019 World Cup, and this really did go on to hurt the side.

Besides KL Rahul, the Indian players who were in the squad for the World T20 were all out of form. Nobody was doing well. India could have changed their squad until October 15th, the date of the IPL Final. Even with so many players out of form, especially the batsmen, India made just 1 change which was Shardul Thakur in place of Axar Patel. Seeing how out of form the players were, India could have definitely made some changes to their side.

In the games against Pakistan and New Zealand, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul combined in both games all together were only able to score 35 runs, which is nowhere near good. You want your openers to get you off to a good start and that’s something which really didn’t happen for India.

With the ball, India weren’t able to get wickets. They didn’t get a single wicket against Pakistan, and against New Zealand they were only able to get 2 wickets. Both those wickets were taking by Jaspreet Bumrah, who of course is India’s lead bowler. And it wasn’t that the bowlers were creating opportunities which were put down by the fielders. There wasn’t a dropped catch in both the games. So the bowlers just weren’t able to create those opportunities and get those wickets.

Another thing which I feel when I look at this Indian side is that they are playing way too much Cricket. A week after the IPL, the World Cup started. Before that, they were playing Test Cricket in England. 3 days after the final of this World Cup, they’ll be taking on New Zealand in a home series. All together, it’s just way too much Cricket. The Indian players need a break, and they haven’t been able to get one with this packed schedule.

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I have said it before that Afghanistan could well be the dark horses in this tournament and cause some upsets. It was not to be in this edition of the tournament. Overall, Afghanistan didn’t do too poorly. They played some good Cricket and had quite a few memorable moments.

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Over the years, West Indies have been known to be T20 giants. They have produced some of the best T20 players that the game has ever seen.

In this tournament, the defending champions just couldn’t come to the party. They definitely under performed all expectations. I was expecting much more from the West Indies, but they failed to do well with both bat and ball.

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Another disappointing tournament for both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. They really couldn’t get going in this tournament. They were in the “Group of Death” and that certainly didn’t make things any easier for them.

Charith Asalanka had an impressive tournament as he made it to the top 5 run scorers of the tournament. He was the only player on that list whose team didn’t qualify for the playoffs.

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My expectations for Namibia and Scotland weren’t too high. I think that they gained some good experience just playing at this level. They had their ups and downs and there were some good individual performances by many players.

Jai Elhance is a 14 year old cricket enthusiast, whose blog and podcast can be found here: https://www.jaielhance.com/

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