The IPL 2024 and T20 World Cup 2024 are scheduled to begin fewer than ten days after the IPL 2024 final, making the world's richest franchise league a perfect practice competition for T20 World Cup-bound players. This was notably true for India, as all of the World Cup-bound players played extensively in the league with no injuries(luckily).
However, save for Rinku Singh, who will travel to the Americas as a reserve player, no one from India's 15-member T20 World Cup team appeared in the IPL 2024 final between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk, Chennai.
Thanks to an all-around performance that featured scorching spells by Mitchell Starc and Andre Russell as well as a half-century by Venkatesh Iyer, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) secured their third Indian Premier League (IPL) title and their first in ten years after defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by eight wickets on Sunday at Chennai's Chepauk Stadium.
2012, 2014, and ??? pic.twitter.com/9nm5XCx5Pz
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) May 26, 2024
The final will include three World Cup-bound players from Australia and South Africa: Pat Cummins, Travis Head from SRH, Mitchell Starc from KKR, and Heinrich Klassen, Aiden Markram, and Marco Jansen from SA. West Indies has two T20 World Cup-bound players who might participate in the IPL 2024 final: Andre Russell KKR and Sherfane Rutherford (both KKR). Afghanistan also has representation in Rahmanullah Gurbaz (KKR) and Fazalhaq Farooqui (SRH), while Sri Lanka has one World Cup-bound player who might participate in the final: Dushmantha Chameera (SRH).
Also Read: Top 10 Most Watched Cricket Matches of All Time
MI is the IPL team with the highest number of Indian players at the T20 World Cup. The other three bowlers this season seriously underperformed, despite Jasprit Bumrah being the most impactful bowler of the competition and a terrific player. The world's top T20I hitter, Suryakumar Yadav, struggled in six of the eleven innings, which was a disappointing performance by his high standards.
One of the best hitters in T20 history, Rohit Sharma, was a terrible captain for most of this year's IPL. Towards the close of the MI campaign, he appeared listless and failed in half (7 of 14) of the innings he batted.
A greater obstacle is presented by Hardik Pandya, Rohit's assistant. Hardik is no longer the potent batter he was for MI in 2019 and 2020; he has lost his X-factor at the plate. For the most part, he has been an anchor and an accumulator in the recent IPL seasons.
Does this imply that the team's prospects for the T20 World Cup are poor because there were no Indians in the championship game? Not really, though. Positively, except for Virat Kohli, Sanju Samson, and Hardik Pandya, most of the Indian team has already left for the United States (they arrived on May 25). This means they will have a few extra days to adjust to the new environment.
Also Read: Which Cricket Teams Have Never Won T20 World Cup?
Give Your Feedback