ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026: This time ‘flop show’ of big teams, Australia’s exit is the biggest upset

The first round of T20 World Cup 2026 was full of thrills, upsets and shocking results. While on one hand teams like Zimbabwe, Italy and America caught everyone’s attention with their brilliant performances, on the other hand the weaknesses of many big teams were exposed in the initial rounds itself. Especially the exit of a strong team like Australia from the group stage is considered to be the biggest shock of the tournament. Apart from this, the performance of teams like Pakistan, Ireland and England was also not as per expectations.

australia flop show, Both bowling and batting failed

The 2021 champion Australia was considered a big contender for the title this time too, but the team’s performance under the captaincy of Mitchell Marsh was very disappointing. The team’s journey ended in the group stage itself. Australia’s biggest weakness was its bowling. The absence of Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins clearly weighed heavily on the team. The team faced a one-sided defeat against Zimbabwe, while Sri Lanka also easily defeated the Kangaroo team by 8 wickets.

Pakistan’s batting raised concerns

Even though Pakistan team remains in the race for Super 8, its performance has been quite unstable. In the very first match of the tournament, the team narrowly lost against Netherlands, which pointed towards the weaknesses of the team. Pakistan’s weak batting order was completely exposed in the match against India. Except Sahibzada Farhan, other batsmen failed to play big innings. Captain Babar Azam has also not been able to perform as per his name so far in this T20 World Cup, which is a matter of concern for the team.

Ireland could not live up to expectations

Ireland were expected to perform better in this tournament, but the team disappointed under the captaincy of Paul Stirling. Registering just one win in four matches reflects the team’s weak strategy and unstable batting. Barring the match against Oman, Ireland’s batting line-up failed completely. Due to continuous top order flops, the team failed to score big scores, due to which they had to suffer in the group stage.

Super 8 England’s performance pales even after reaching IPL

The England team may have reached the Super 8, but its performance cannot be called satisfactory. The team was seen struggling in many matches and narrowly escaped becoming the victim of a major upset against Nepal. Even in the match against West Indies, England’s batting order could not leave much impact. Star batsmen like Jos Buttler, Harry Brook and Phil Salt failed to perform as per expectations. At the same time, fast bowler Joffra Archer also could not succeed in leaving his mark in the first round.

The biggest feature of this T20 World Cup was that relatively small teams caused big upsets. Teams like Zimbabwe, Italy and America proved that any team can defeat anyone in the T20 format by showing brilliant play.