Veteran wicketkeeper-batter Brendan Taylor has been ruled out of the remainder of the ongoing T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka because of a hamstring injury, Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza confirmed at the toss ahead of the game against Australia in Colombo on Friday. Top-order batter Ben Curran has been brought in as his replacement.Taylor, 40, had picked up a hamstring injury in Zimbabwe’s first match of the tournament, which they won against Oman, and had to retire hurt when on 31 off 30 balls. He had earlier taken three catches behind the stumps.
With at least two more games to go in the tournament, Curran has been brought into the squad. Curran, who has centuries in both Tests and ODIs, has never been considered for T20I cricket before. In 40 T20 innings, he has 872 runs at a strike rate of 126.01 with a best of 71.
There was always a fear that Taylor might struggle to make the XI for the game against Australia, but it was understood that the team management would leave Taylor out, if not fit, for the game in the hope of having him ready for the remaining fixtures.
Taylor made a comeback to international cricket in July 2025 after serving a three-and-a-half year ban for breaching the ICC’s anti-corruption code. Taylor, whose sanction ended on July 25, was named in Zimbabwe’s squad for the second Test against New Zealand in August. That was one of two Tests for Taylor upon his comeback, to go with two ODIs and 14 T20Is, in which he had 282 runs, including an innings of 123 against Botswana in a T20 World Cup qualifying game in September 2025.
