New Delhi. Till now in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, the magic of the batsmen which the fans were waiting for has not been seen. The reason for this is the slowness of the wickets of West Indies and America and the slowness of the outfield. Most of the matches have been low-scoring. The dominance of the bowlers over the batsman can be understood from the fact that there are less than a dozen matches left in the tournament and scores of 200+ have been seen only four times. Such matches were also seen in which the teams of India, South Africa and Bangladesh defended the score of less than 120.
Not only in terms of runs, but also in terms of fours and sixes, this World Cup has not been able to give fun to the cricket lovers. Till the Bangladesh-Australia match of Super 8 (44th match of the tournament), only 729 fours and 389 sixes have been seen. The average of sixes per match is around 8.84 and fours are around 16.56, whereas usually in T20I, many times more sixes and fours are hit in an innings of a match. This is the situation when all the matches from the Super 8 round have been shifted to West Indies where the wickets are better for batting than America. We can only hope that after the bowlers rule in the group matches, the batsmen will now rule in the future matches and the fans’ wish of seeing ‘rain’ of fours and sixes will be fulfilled.
The effect of fewer sixes hit so far in the tournament is also visible in the ‘accounts’ of the veteran batsmen. The ‘account’ of sixes of some famous batsmen, famous for their stormy batting, is still empty in this tournament, in which Matthew Wade of Australia team reached Super 8, Shakib-Al-Hasan of Bangladesh team. And India’s Ravindra Jadeja is included. This is Wade’s fourth T20 World Cup, whereas Shakib has played in all 9 T20 World Cups so far. This is also Jadeja’s sixth T20 World Cup.
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Wade had received praise by hitting 3 consecutive sixes on Shaheen’s balls.
Australia’s wicketkeeper batsman Wade has scored runs at a strike rate of 140.00 on 15 balls in two innings of 5 matches of this T20 World Cup, but has not yet hit a six with his bat. It is true that Wade has not got many innings and balls to play till now, but his image is that of a batsman who has dominated the bowlers since the beginning. The wickets of the tournament are slow and the ball is stopping many times, so this is not possible. Let us tell you, Wade has hit 46 sixes in 90 T20Is. He took Australia to the final by hitting Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi for consecutive sixes on the last three balls of the 19th over of the semi-finals of the 2021 T20 World Cup. Australia became the champion by defeating New Zealand in the final of this World Cup. In this match, Wade played an unbeaten inning of 41 runs with the help of two fours and four sixes in just 17 balls and made the team’s victory possible by changing the course of the game.
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Played 96 balls but Shakib could not hit 6 till now
Shakib, one of the best all-rounders in the world, has so far hit 52 sixes in 127 T20Is. Talking about the current World Cup, facing 96 balls in 5 matches, he has scored 100 runs (average 25.00, strike rate 104.16) with the help of one half-century but there is not a single six in it. In 41 matches of T20 World Cup, Shakib has so far scored 842 runs with the help of 73 fours and 23 sixes while taking maximum 49 wickets. Like these two, India’s Ravindra Jadeja has also not been able to hit a six in this tournament so far. The teams of these three players have made it to the Super 8. It is expected that fans will be able to see him hitting sixes in the future matches.
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Other batsmen who could not hit a six included Mendis, ‘Chacha’ and Rachin.
Although the list of batsmen who could not hit even a single six in the T20 World Cup 2024 is quite long. This includes the names of strong batsmen like Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis, New Zealand’s Rachin Ravindra and Pakistan’s Iftikhar Ahmed. The teams of all these batsmen could not make it to the Super 8. Out of this, Kusal Mendis has scored 1629 runs in 67 T20Is at an excellent strike rate of 134.40, which includes 74 sixes. However, whether it is a result of bad pitches or poor form, in the three matches of the current World Cup, Kusal could score only 75 runs at an average of 25, playing 67 balls. He could not hit any six.
Pakistan’s Iftikhar Ahmed, popularly known as ‘Chacha’, also remained angry with the bat in the T20 World Cup. He could score only 25 runs in two matches. Iftikhar has so far hit 44 sixes in 66 T20Is. New Zealand’s Indian-origin player Rachin Ravindra, who became the ‘noor’ of everyone’s eyes with his explosive performance in the World Cup (ODI) 2023, would also like to forget this T20 World Cup as a nightmare. Remaining unbeaten once in three matches, he was able to score only 17 runs in which there was neither a six nor a four. The ‘classless’ pitches of T20 World Cup 2024 have similarly embarrassed many other batsmen. Let us tell you, Rachin Ravindra was among the top-4 batsmen in the World Cup (ODI) held in India last year. He scored 578 runs in 10 matches with three centuries which included 17 sixes. Similarly, Kusal Mendis had hit 15 sixes and Iftikhar had hit 8 sixes in the ODI World Cup.
Tags: ICC T20 World Cup, matthew wade, Shakib Al Hasan, T20 World Cup
FIRST PUBLISHED: June 22, 2024, 07:45 IST
