T20 World Cup: Cannot rely on other teams’ results, says Ross Taylor on Pakistan’s T20 World Cup exit

Former New Zealand batter Ross Taylor opines that both Pakistan and New Zealand’s 2024 T20 World Cup campaign were at risk because they had to depend on other teams’ results for chances of further qualification into the tournament. Pakistan men’s cricket team hit a new low as they were knocked out of the T20 World Cup 2024 even before they played their final group game. Babar Azam’s men failed to qualify for the Super 8s after USA’s Group A game against Ireland in Lauderhill, Florida was washed out due to rain and a wet outfield in Florida. Similarly, New Zealand suffered the same fate after Afghanistan beat Papua New Guinea by 7 wickets on June 15.

Pakistan’s exit has already marked a huge wave of disappointed reaction from the side’s fanbase all over social media, who have gone all out with their criticism of the skipper Babar Azam and the team management particularly. On the other hand, the Black Caps also had very little opportunity to save their campaign after their thrashing to Afghanistan and then a close-call 13-run defeat to West Indies at the very get go of the tournament.

Speaking to Star Sports, Taylor opined that these kinds of big-nation upsets are what makes the T20 World Cup stand out. He explained that both sides never got the chance to gain any stability in their campaign.

“It just never really got going. You know, you go through that lineup (Pakistan), it’s such a world-class lineup. Shaheen Afridi, Babar (Azam), (Mohammed)Rizwan. These players are world-class players, and how they missed out. It’s just such a quick tournament. Within two games, they were put under pressure and out of the tournament. You never want to rely on the results of other teams and both New Zealand and Pakistan, once they got off to such a slow start, were relying on other results that didn’t go their way,” Talor said.

“Both teams, New Zealand in the semifinals, Pakistan in the final in the last tournament. I don’t think anyone would have predicted both of these teams to be at this early stage. With a lot of players, former players picking both of these teams to be, uh, semifinal contenders. So, back to the drawing board for both teams, but once again, these upsets are what makes World Cups and this has made this World Cup a stand-out for me,” Taylor added.

The 2022 runners-up and the 2009 winners of the T20 World Cup will be especially frustrated by the fact that this was the first time in 10 years that they faced a group-stage exit, after holding the record of reaching the most number of semifinals in the history of the tournament.