ICC World T20 2016: 5 Players who failed to live up to the expectations

The 2016 edition of World T20 came to an end with West Indies being crowned as the Champions, courtesy of a 4 wicket win over England in the Finals at Kolkata on Sunday.

The tournament saw some great performances from Man of the Tournament Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Samuel Badree, David Willey etc.

But at the same time, there were some players who failed to stamp their authority over the opposition in the World T20. Players like Shikhar Dhawan, Umar Akmal, Dinesh Chandimal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Glenn Maxwell failed to set the tournament on fire.

Let us take a look at the players who under-performed and failed to live up to the expectations in the tournament.

Rohit Sharma

A lot was expected from the Indian opener in this World T20 as he came into the tournament after a successful tour of Australia earlier this year, followed by a decent outing in the series against Sri Lanka and the Asia Cup.

Rohit and Virat Kohli were considered as the vital cogs in the Indian team if they had to go on to win the World T20. While Virat went on to become the Player of the tournament, Rohit Sharma was completely off-colour throughout the tournament.

It wasn’t a case of him being out of form. It was about the way he got out in all the matches. He looked good during his short stays at the crease, but got out to reckless shots in all the matches.

In the five matches he played in this World T20, Rohit scored a combined total of 88 runs at an average of 17.6. His failure at the top of the order is one of the main reasons why India failed to live up to the potential in the World T20.

David Warner

David Warner has been Australia’s best batsman across all the formats in the last 2-3 years. A lot of hopes were pinned on him ahead of the tournament as he adapted well in the middle order during the series against South Africa in which he scored 130 runs in three innings including a match-winning 77 in the second T20I at Johannesburg.

After performing so well in the build up to the tournament, Warner failed to deliver when it mattered the most. In the four innings he played, he scored just 38 runs at an average of 9.5.

This hurt Australia badly as they failed to qualify for the semis. At the end of the day, it all comes down to the team management’s decision to make a player of Warner’s calibre play in the middle order. A decision which completely backfired.

Kagiso Rabada

Kagiso Rabada is yet another player who failed to live up to his potential after showing a lot of promise. The youngster has been South Africa’s best bowler in the last one year as he bowled exceedingly well in Bangladesh, India and against England and Australia at home.

He was considered the pace spearhead for the attack that had the likes of Dale Steyn and Kyle Abbott. But, when the tournament started, Rabada hit a pale patch and looked far from his best throughout the tournament.

He not only failed to pick up wickets, but also went for plenty of runs. Even though he played majority of the matches at the Wankhede stadium, an economy of over 10 for a player of his calibre is too much. His figures in this World T20 read 11.4-0-125-5.

Eoin Morgan

England captain Eoin Morgan also features in the list of players who failed in the tournament in spite of his team ending up as the runners up.

In the lead up to the tournament, Morgan, along with Joe Root and Alex Hales, was expected to do the bulk of job for England’s batting to be successful in the tournament, but in the end, only Joe Root scored runs consistently when compared to the other two.

Morgan was done in by the spin as he got out to the spinners four times in six innings he played in the tournament. In the remaining two, he was unbeaten in one and was run-out in the other.

In the six innings he played in the tournament, he scored a total of 66 runs in 6 innings at an average of 13.20, which is below-par by a batsman’s standard.

Suresh Raina

Suresh Raina miserably failed to live up to the expectation of being a T20 specialist.

After being dropped from India’s ODI side, Raina was roped into the T20 side for the tour to Australia and the subsequent series against Sri Lanka, Asia Cup and World T20.

Though he picked up three wickets with the ball, he failed consistently with the bat. His weakness against the short ball was exposed as he was playing for the bouncers whenever he faced a pacer in this tournament.

In the 4 innings he played in the tournament, he scored a total of 41 runs at an average of just over 10.