Why Wasim Ali is Not Playing Today in IRE vs OMA T20 World Cup 2026?

Ireland and Oman are playing their third match of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2026 at the Sinhalese Sports Club. Both teams have lost their first two matches of the tournament and the loser of this match will be knocked out. Oman skipper Jatinder Singh won the toss and opted to bowl first while also announcing two changes in the playing XI. However, there was an unexpected snub as their star all-rounder Wasim Ali has been dropped.

Why Wasim Ali is Not Playing Today in IRE vs OMA?

Wasim Ali played the first two matches for Oman but failed to produce any effective performance. The team management decided to go with Ashish Odedara, a middle order batting specialist as Wasim Ali replacement for the IRE vs OMA T20 World Cup 2026 match. Interestingly, Ashish has played only seven T20I matches in his career, scoring just 44 runs at an average of 6.28.

It would be interesting to see if this tactical change goes in favour for the Oman side or it will backfire them. The team management made this change in the hope of creating an impact against Ireland so that team can compete well against some of the best cricket teams in the world.

Wasim Ali Below-Par Performance in T20 World Cup 2026

As mentioned above, Wasim Ali played the first two matches of the tournament but couldn't make a big impact. During Oman's first match, which was against Zimbabwe, Ali failed with the bat, scoring just three runs. He also bowled two overs in the match, conceding 10 runs without picking a single wicket.

Oman played their second match against the hosts, Sri Lanka, where Ali bowled three overs and conceded 38 runs in three overs and again went wicketless. The left-handed batter did show some fireworks with the bat, smashing three sixes and scoring 27 runs off 20 balls, but it wasn't enough for the team to get past the victory line as they ended up losing the match by 105 runs.