The 2021 T20 World Cup is set to begin in less than a week’s time with the pre-super eight rounds having already begun. It is almost five-and-a-half years after the previous edition. The hopes of a number of players would have come crashing down after they were not selected by their respective teams for one reason or another. To play for the national team is the ultimate honor for a cricketer.
The IPL has recently concluded and it is only the right thing to say that many players have either been wrongly overlooked or faced an injury at the wrong time. Let’s take a look at the XI that is made up of players who were unlucky to miss out.
In this article, we look at 5 unlucky players to have missed out on the 2021 T20I world cup.
1. Alex Hales
A strong hitter of the ball and a lethal opener for England, Alex Hales has been having an on and off relationship with the England cricket team. Hales has always been an asset for the team and performed very well for the team in the 2012, 2014, and 2016 editions of the tournament. However, his off-field issues continue to influence the selection of the player in the team. He has scored a mountain of runs in domestic cricket and made a solid impact in the recently concluded “The Hundred”. However, he has been overlooked by the international team since 2019. The final in the coffin was his non-selection in the England vs Pakistan series when the primary team had to quarantine due to covid scare and a second-string England line-up took to the field.
2. Faf du Plessis
Another prolific opener and power hitter, du Plessis has been overlooked by the South African selectors. His bat did the talking during the IPL this year as he ended as the second-highest run-scorer in the tournament and missed out on the orange cap by only six runs. However, the veteran batsman has proven his selectors wrong and shown the true colors of his age and experience. his non-selection in the team has stunned the cricket pundits and fans across the world.
3. Axar Patel
He may crown himself as the most unlucky in this list of players. He is one of those players who had made it to the initial cut but post the conclusion of the IPL found himself absent from the team sheets. Patel was replaced by Shardul Thakur in order to lend some teeth to the pace bowling department and all-rounder abilities. Axar had done everything right. He had had a great home series against England and also did fairly well in the IPL.
4. Yuzvendra Chahal
Indian spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has been dropped by the Indian selectors and the likes of Ravi Ashwin and Varun Chakravarthy have overtaken him. After a splendid performance in Australia earlier this year, Chahal has been out of form in recent months. Also, the Indian team needed a spinner who could bowl fast in the air and add a few variations. He picked up a massive 18 wickets in the IPL. It was a rather unusual decision to drop India’s premier spinner who has roared back to form in the UAE leg of the IPL.
5. Shreyas Iyer
The star batsman could not have had an injury at a worse time. His stocks in the Indian team, as well as the IPL, were on the rise. He successfully led Delhi Capitals to the finals of IPL last year. He followed that with match-winning efforts in Australia only to dislocate his shoulder for him to be out of action for months. On account of him being out of the side for so long, the BCCI decided to go with the likes of Ishan Kishan and Surya Kumar Yadav.
