5 Players with Most Ducks In T20 World Cup History

Shahid Afridi has registered the most ducks in T20 World Cups (x.com)Shahid Afridi has registered the most ducks in T20 World Cups (x.com)

In any cricketing format, the first run is often considered the hardest to score, marking a crucial psychological milestone for any batter. The pressure for the same is exponentially higher in a T20 World Cup match, where every run contributes significantly to the team’s cause.

Unfortunately, some batters fail to get off the mark by recording a duck that can have a detrimental impact on their team’s fate. Here at OneCricket, we take a look at five batters in T20 World Cup history (2007-2024) with the highest number of ducks to their names.

5 Players With Most Ducks In T20 World Cup:

5. Andre Russell - 4 ducks

Andre Russell - 4 Ducks [X.com]Andre Russell - 4 Ducks [X.com]

West Indies powerhouse Andre Russell has registered four ducks across 24 innings spanning five different T20 World Cup editions from 2012 till 2024. The dashing all-rounder holds a dismal batting average of 16.85 at the big stage, and even his strike-rate of 147.50 falls well short to his overall T20I rate of nearly 164.

Despite his below par batting record, Andre Russell holds a tendency of coming up clutch in crunch knockout games for West Indies, and is a two-time World Champion for them, having lifting the coveted trophy in 2012 and 2016.

4. Johnson Charles - 4 ducks

Johnson Charles - 4 ducks [X.com]Johnson Charles - 4 ducks [X.com]

West Indies wicketkeeper-batter Johnson Charles, also a part of their 2012 and 2016 T20 World Cup winning teams, has claimed an unwanted record of scoring four ducks in his 21 tournament appearances. 

The cricketer secured two of those ducks at the 2024 T20 World Cup against Papua New Guinea and New Zealand at Providence and Tarouba respectively. So far in his T20 World Cup career, Charles has tallied just 456 runs in 20 innings at a substandard strike-rate of 113.71 and an average of 22.80.

3. Soumya Sarkar - 4 ducks

Soumya Sarkar - 4 ducks [X.com]Soumya Sarkar - 4 ducks [X.com]

Bangladesh batter Soumya Sarkar holds an unwanted T20I record of registering the highest number of ducks, 13 of them in 83 innings. Remarkably, the batting all-rounder has recorded four of those ducks in just 16 T20 World Cup innings. 

The 31-year-old even failed to open his account against Sri Lanka during the Group D game of the 2024 T20 World Cup at Dallas in June. Sarkar’s T20 World Cup batting average of 9.43 and a strike-rate of 98.69 falls well below his international benchmark.

2. Tillakaratne Dilshan - 5 ducks

Tillakaratne Dilshan - 5 ducks [X.com]Tillakaratne Dilshan - 5 ducks [X.com]

Sri Lanka’s 2014 T20 World Cup winning member and 2009’s highest run-maker, Tillakaratne Dilshan has registered five ducks in his 34 batting appearances. The legendary batter, however, tends to make up for his occasional failures with the bat considering the right-hander has scored 897 runs at an average of nearly 31 and with a strike-rate of 124.06.

Apart from being the joint-highest record holder in terms of number of ducks in T20 World Cups, Tillakaratne Dilshan has also registered 10 scoreless innings across all T20 internationals for Sri Lanka.

1. Shahid Afridi - 5 ducks

Shahid Afridi - 5 ducks [X.com]Shahid Afridi - 5 ducks [X.com]

Legendary Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi has recorded five out of his eight T20I ducks at the grand stage of T20 World Cups. One of Afridi’s most infamous T20 World Cup innings remains the first-ball zero he secured against arch-rivals India in the final of the 2007 edition of the tournament.

While the all-rounder played a crucial role in Pakistan’s historic title triumph in 2009, and was declared as the ‘Player of the Tournament’ in 2007, the cricketer holds a torrid batting average of just 18.82 after playing 32 T20 World Cup innings.