Ben Curran, the brother of Sam Curran and Tom Curran, was named as the injury replacement for Brendan Taylor on Friday and will join the Zimbabwe squad for the remainder of the T20 World Cup 2026, being played in India and Sri Lanka. Earlier, the experienced Taylor was ruled out of the tournament after sustaining a right hamstring injury during the match against Oman on February 9.
Curran has now been added to the Zimbabwe squad, following approval from the Event Technical Committee. All injury replacements must be approved by this committee before they can be added to the squad.
The Event Technical committee of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 consists of Wasim Khan (Chair, ICC General Manager – Cricket), Gaurav Saxena (ICC General Manager – Events & Corporate Communications, IBC representative), Hemang Amin (Tournament Director, host representative) and Shaun Pollock (Independent nominee).
Speaking of Zimbabwe, the side led by Sikandar Raza scripted history on Friday as the team pulled off the first major upset of the T20 World Cup, defeating Australia by 23 runs at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. The Australians failed to chase down the target of 170 after pacer Blessing Muzarabani took a four-wicket haul. Brad Evans also returned with three wickets as Australia were bowled out for 146.
The score would have been all the way lower had Matthew Renshaw not played a knock of 65 runs off 44 balls. Earlier, Zimbabwe posted 169/2 in 20 overs owing to an unbeaten 64-run knock by Brian Bennett.
What did Raza say?
As expected, Raza was over the moon with Zimbabwe’s second victory over Australia in the T20 World Cup, with the first one coming in the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2007 at Cape Town.
“I’m very happy, but above all, I’m very proud, a feeling of a brother who has his younger brother that’s achieving a lot together. So it was nice to watch from outside and see how the team went about their business, the culture, the environment, the unity that we have taken, that we have created over a long time,” Raza said at the post-match presentation.
“I thought 175 was what we were looking for, but ended up maybe a few dots. But the way we came and the way we bowled, the way we started, the way we fielded every catch, some of the boundary stops, it’s just unbelievable. I mean, there’s nothing to fault the boys for. It looked like the boys wanted it, and I think they really did, and they deserved to win today,” he added.
Speaking of Zimbabwe, the side has now won its opening two matches and is well-positioned to qualify for the Super 8s. All the pressure is now on Australia, as a defeat against Sri Lanka might just confirm their ouster from the tournament if Zimbabwe beats Ireland on Tuesday, February 17.
