Explained: Why big teams failed to qualify in super 8 in world cup 2024

The ongoing edition of ICC T20 World Cup 2024 has been nothing short of a ‘tournament with shocking developments’ every day. The elimination of big teams from the tournament has become very hard to believe both for the fans and the experts of the game.

Notably, the major teams, including the likes of New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, have already been eliminated only in the tournament group stage and failed to advance to the super-8 round of the tournament. The defending champions England are also on the verge of being knocked out of the tournament.

With said that, here we’ll have a look at the reasons why big teams failed to qualify for the super-8 stage of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024.

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Participation of 20 teams increased the possibility of upsets

Interestingly, it is the first-ever edition in the history of the T20 World Cup in which a total of 20 teams are participating. These teams are divided into four groups namely A, B, C, and D. So, it was quietly written on the walls that some ‘giant-killings’ or elimination of big teams would be seen in this tournament.

The large number of participating teams also increased the chances of a tough contest fight for the big teams from the associate teams or the underdogs. The defeat of Pakistan against the USA, three three-times lower ranked than them was the first giant killing in this World Cup. Meanwhile, being new and unaware of the strategies of the minnows or the associate teams, the big teams also had a big puzzle to solve in this edition of the tournament.

Short gap between the IPL and the World Cup, and not enough time to gel in as a team

Notably, the ongoing 2024 edition of the tournament was scheduled to be started just 6 days after the end of the Indian Premier League 2024. IPL ended on May 26 while the World Cup was scheduled to start from June 1. This short gap didn’t give some of the big teams time to gel as a unit from the marquee international tournament.

The performance and failure of New Zealand were prime examples of the impact of the short gap between the IPL and the World Cup. A lot of Kiwi players were in action in IPL for the different teams while their second string was playing the T20I series against Pakistan.

It could have been a better option for New Zealand to send their full strength in the T20I series against Pakistan to give the team a chance to gel with each other as a unit. A similar could be seen with Sri Lanka as their few players were in action during IPL 2024 and others were out of action from the cricket.

Less game practice before the main round of the tournament

Besides the above-discussed reasons behind the elimination of the big teams only in the group stage of the tournament, there seems to be another big reason for this unexpected turnaround of events in the ongoing edition of the prestigious cricket biennial. It was nothing other than the less game practice time before the start of the main round of the tournament.

The warm-up matches getting washed out was a reason that some of the big teams couldn’t get enough time to get themselves ready and geared up with the new pitch and weather conditions in the United States of America.

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