Is IPL to blame for New Zealand's T20 World Cup failure?

It was clear that New Zealand, who crashed out of the ongoing 2024 T20 World Cup in league phase and failed to reach semi-finals of an ICC tournament for the first time since 2015, simply did not take preparations for the apex T20 tournament seriously.

Afghanistan, who beat Papua New Guinea by seven wickets in Tarouba, near Trinidad, late on June 13 sealed the second spot in Super 8s after co-host West Indies had grabbed the first spot earlier in the day beating the Kiwis by 13 runs.

Ahead of the biennial tournament, when it was time for the team to bond together in a T20I series, as many as 12 New Zealand players as per our count, including skipper Kane Williamson, were busy with the Indian Premier League. It could have been 13 had Devon Conway not been injured and ruled out.

During New Zealand’s five-match T20I series in Pakistan, only four first-choice players, three of whom are part of the current T20 World Cup squad could make the squad. New Zealand Cricket had to rule out nine first-choice players from that series due to IPL commitments.

This is the first time that a T20 World Cup is being held immediately after the Indian Premier League since 2015 after which the Kiwis made the semis of each ICC tournament. Previously, the 2009 and 2014 editions were held just after the IPL. It means that post-2015, all teams had enough time to focus on T20 World Cup instead of world’s premier franchise league. Lack of game-time together as a team showed in the New Zealand campaign.

The Kiwis lost their first match in the T20 World Cup, shockingly, to Afghanistan by 84 runs at Providence Stadium, Guyana on June 7. They then lost the next match, a close encounter, against West Indies, by 13 runs, on June 12 at Tarouba.

Skipper Williamson did admit that playing two quick matches at the start against challenging teams had a bearing on their eventual result.

"Sitting, waiting to play and then to play sort of two in quite quick succession and what has been challenging from a number of perspectives and two very strong teams,” said Williamson after the match.

“…But also conditions that I think we've seen throughout the competition that have proved to be challenging.”

New Zealand were bowled out for 75 in the first match, with only two batsmen making double figures and none reaching 20. They then narrowly missed the 150-run chase against West Indies.

“Yeah, frustrating, absolutely, to start the way we have. The conditions are the same for everybody, so it's trying to learn. We've got a game again [vs Uganda] quite quickly and so we need to get better for the experience, we need to put out improved performances and gain that knowledge but like you mentioned the equation is looking tough.”

One can argue that the Australians and Indians are also coming straight from IPL. However, the Aussies and Indians are more used to round-the-year cricket than other teams. Besides, they did not have to face two tough teams, Test nations, first-up. In a tournament such as this, an easy game early can boost confidence and bring the team together.    

T20 World Cup, New Zealand, Afghanistan, West Indies, Cricket