Former England captain Michael Vaughan blamed former finalists South Africa for India’s T20 World Cup 2026 win. The Men in Blue beat New Zealand in the final and won by 96 runs.
Michael Vaughan made a stunning remark, calling South Africa the stupidest team of the tournament. Notably, the West Indies needed to beat South Africa in the Super 8 stage to knock India out of the competition. However, the Proteas won the game, following which India beat the West Indies and made it to the semifinal.
Therefore, Vaughan reckoned that South Africa could have been smart and lost to the West Indies to knock India out of the T20 World Cup 2026.
“I tell you, who I think is the stupidest team of the tournament? South Africa. Because if South Africa had allowed the West Indies to beat them in the Super 8s, India would have been knocked out. I’m just saying – if they had cleared them out, the juggernaut that was coming would have stopped. By winning that game, they allowed the juggernaut to go on. India then beat Zimbabwe, then the West Indies in a kind of quarterfinal, and then England. South Africa had to play Zimbabwe next, and they even rested three players for that match,” he said on the ‘Stick to Cricket‘ podcast.
While the West Indies were eliminated, South Africa lost the semifinals against New Zealand. India beat England in the other semifinal to make it to the title clash.
Michael Vaughan praises India for smart use of ace pacer
Meanwhile, Michael Vaughan also praised the Indian team and captain Suryakumar Yadav for their smart and efficient use of Jasprit Bumrah throughout the tournament.
He highlighted how they used Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh in the powerplay to save Bumrah for the tougher overs throughout the various phases of the game.
“I’ll tell you what they do really well, the Indian T20 team and the captain, is that usually with someone like Bumrah, you think he’ll bowl two in the powerplay and two at the backend, but they use him as an insurance policy. They let Hardik and Arshdeep bowl the first two. If they do well, Arshdeep might bowl the third. If they look like they need to drag it back, Bumrah bowls. If it goes well, he might not bowl again in the powerplay. They left him with three in the last ten against England. In the final, they went two up top because they wanted to clear Finn Allen and Seifert. They change the way they use Bumrah so the opposition can’t predict,” Michael Vaughan said. (via the aforementioned source)
Bumrah made a massive contribution to India’s win. He returned figures of 4/15 in the final and ended as the joint highest wicket-taker of the tournament with 14 scalps.
Edited by Rishab Vm
