T20 World Cup 2026: Brendan Taylor’s fitness a major concern for Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza

Veteran wicketkeeper-batter Brendan Taylor limping off the ground after retiring hurt is a cause for concern going forward for Zimbabwe, said skipper Sikandar Raza, following his team’s comprehensive victory against Oman in its T20 World Cup opener in Colombo Monday.

Taylor was struggling while running between the wickets and was promptly taken off, with Raza later insisting that he did not want to aggravate the problem considering his importance to the team.

“The main concern is Brendan Taylor. As soon as I saw that, because I’ve seen that picture far too many times, I made eye contact with him and I wanted him out. This has happened before, where he carried on playing and made it worse,” Raza said at the presentation ceremony.

“He’s a key member of our team, so I didn’t want to take that chance. Hopefully, we’ve got three or four days, but we’ll wait for the scan. His initial reaction was, I think it’s bad, but we’ll wait for the medical report,” the skipper added.

The 40-year-old Taylor was retired hurt in his previous T20 innings last month as well. This is the third time he retired hurt in his last five T20 innings.

Barring the injury to Taylor, Zimbabwe enjoyed a near-perfect outing, with its pacers firing on all cylinders, before the talented Brian Bennett (48 not out off 36 balls) and Taylor (31 retired hurt off 30 balls) shone with the bat.

Opting to bowl, Blessing Muzarabani (3/16) wreaked havoc with the new ball, before his pace-bowling colleagues Richard Ngarava (3/17) and Brad Evans (3/18) joined him in the demolition job to skittle out Oman for 103. Zimbabwe completed the chase for the loss of two wickets in 13.3 overs.

“We read the wicket well. We executed our plans well. I think this is as clinical as we can be. There were boundaries here and there, and a few bad overs for us, but that doesn’t really bother me. I thought the plans we set, we executed.

“Even with the batting as well, yes, ideally you want to win by a bigger margin and get a good start and finish the game, but you know, first game of a World Cup, a little bit nervous, putting everything into consideration, this is as clinical as we can be,” Raza said.

Published on Feb 09, 2026