20-20 World Cup 2022: Five replacements who flopped badly in the eighth edition of the 20-20 World Cup

The eighth edition of the 20-20 World Cup has finally reached its judgment day. Now, Jos Buttler-led England is all set to face Babar Azam’s Pakistan in the title clash of the 20-20 World Cup 2022. This edition has been a roller coaster for most of the big teams as they faced some shocking defeats at the hands of a few lower-ranked teams like Zimbabwe and the Netherlands.

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Apart from that, the participating teams in the 20-20 World Cup also faced some injury issues and they were made to replace some of their big players with the ones who were not in the squad initially. But in an unfortunate line of events, some replacements failed to deliver up to the expectations of their respective teams.

So, without further ado, here we’ll have a look at five players who were named as replacements for one of their teammates but failed to make an impact in the marquee tournament in Australia.

1. Mohammed Shami – Jasprit Bumrah

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The 32-year-old senior pacer, Mohammed Shami was named as the replacement for the injured pacer Jasprit Bumrah in the Indian squad for the 20-20 World Cup 2022. He was highly expected to deliver his best for the men in blue in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah.

But Shami could scalp only six wickets in the six matches he appeared for India throughout the entire edition of the 20-20 World Cup 2022. Whereas he also leaked 143 runs and failed at some crucial moments to restrict the opponent batters when the Indian team needed it badly.

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2. Gulbadin Naib – Hazratullah Zazai

Bowling all-rounder Gulbadin Naib happened to replace opening batter Hazratullah Zazai as the latter sustained an injury just before the commencement of the tournament. Everyone was expecting Naib to perform for Afghanistan in some of the most crucial and big matches.

But unfortunately, the 31-year-old could play only two matches for Afghanistan and failed to scalp a single wicket for his team. Speaking of his batting, the Logar-born cricketer could register individual scores of only 12 against Sri Lanka and 39 runs against Australia.

3. Kasun Rajitha – Dushmantha Chameera

The 30-year-old pacer Dushmantha Chameera could play two matches in the qualification round for Sri Lanka against UAE and Namibia. In these two appearances, Chameera scalped only one wicket against Namibia followed by three wickets against UAE in Geelong.

Later on, Chameera sustained an injury, and he was ruled out of the entire tournament. The Sri Lankan team management replaced him with right-arm speedster Kasun Rajitha. In a disappointing timeline of events for the Islanders, Rajitha also failed to make an impact. The Matara-born pacer played three matches in the 20-20 World Cup for Sri Lanka and could scalp only three wickets including a wicketless outing against England in the last super-12 match.

4. Soumya Sarkar – Mohammad Saifuddin

The Bangladesh Cricket Board BCB made a change in their squad at the last moment just a few days before the last day of squad submission, which was the 15^th of October. Bowling all-rounder Mohammad Saifuddin was snubbed at the last moment from the Bangla squad for the 20-20 World Cup 2022.

The 26-year-old was later replaced by the experienced middle-order batter Soumya Sarkar. But unfortunately, Sarkar also failed the Bangladesh management and could contribute with only 49 runs in the four innings he played for Bangladesh. The Satkhira right-hander registered a below-par average of 12.25.

5. Shamarh Brooks – Shimron Hetmyer

This edition of the 20-20 World Cup was like a nightmare for the two-time champions West Indies. The Caribbean side faced a major blow when the blistering top order batter Shimron Hetmyer missed joining the squad due to a reason of indiscipline as he missed the flight to Australia on the same day when the Caribbean side was supposed to fly to play the eighth edition of the 20-20 World Cup.

Subsequently, the Caribbean management went on to replace Hetmyer with Barbados' top-order batter Shamarh Brooks. The 34-year-old was expected to deliver some crucial performances in the qualifying round of the 20-20 World Cup 2022. But Brooks failed to score good knocks with his bat as he had a zero and 4 runs to his name against Scotland and Zimbabwe.