Sneak-peek into the 16 teams

The Express Tribune gives its readers an overview of the 16 teams taking part in the ICC World Twenty20 2014, taking place in Bangladesh from Sunday.

Pakistan, India, New Zealand, West Indies, England, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Australia are the top eight teams that have already qualified for the ‘Super Ten’ stage on the basis of their ICC Twenty20I Championship rankings. Zimbabwe, Ireland, Bangladesh, UAE, Nepal, Netherlands, Afghanistan and Hong Kong will compete in the group stage, from which two teams advance to the main round of the event.



8 confirmed teams for Super 10

Pakistan

On the back of a gutsy – albeit unsuccessful – Asia Cup title defence, Pakistan would be going into the World Twenty20 carrying many positives and if they are to once again return from Bangladesh to a hero’s welcome, then it is vital that they retain them.

The form of opener Ahmed Shehzad up the order and of Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal further down need to continue if Pakistan are to make their way through what seems to be the tougher of the two group.

Pakistan would take heart from the fact that they are the most successful team in the tournament’s short history. Coming agonisingly close in the first World Twenty20, Pakistan went on to win the next.

Had it not been for Michael Hussey playing arguably the best innings ever in the format – single-handedly  destroying the best bowling attack in the world – Pakistan would have reached a third consecutive final. In the most recent edition of the tournament, the men-in-green fell to a familiar scourge– a batting collapse in the second innings – but not before, once again, reaching the semi-finals – the only team to do so on all four attempts.

With conditions in Bangladesh favouring spinners, Muhammad Hafeez has every right to be hopeful of lifting the trophy aloft in Mirpur, come April 6. However, he would need his batsmen to fire in the tournament and would be hoping that Umar Gul produces the form of 2009, especially since the faster bowlers have been getting some stick – both the literal and the figurative.

The inclusion of Zulfiqar Babar and Shoaib Malik means that Pakistan may have as many as five spinners in their side when they begin the tournament on March 21 against archrivals India and all five may play an important role if the pacers continue to leak runs.

Keeping in mind their recent Asia Cup exploits and the form of key men, as well as their previous achievements in the tournament, Pakistan can be dubbed the pretournament favourites going into the mega event.



 

 

New Zealand

Alongside South Africa and Australia, New Zealand go into the tournament having an edge over the others due to their excellence on the field. In a format where games are often decided by the slightest of margins, a superb catch or an excellent run-out may go a long way against overcoming oppositions.

Riding on the back of a good series against India, New Zealand have shown that they have a huge chance of making it into the final of the World championship. As per usual, captain Brendon McCullum will lead from the front and with Corey Anderson down the order, the pair could form a lethal partnership to strike fear in all opponents.

With a nice mix of youth and experience on their side, the Black Caps have it in them to beat any side on their day.

Australia

While captain George Bailey’s place in the limited over formats is undisputable, he would be hoping to send a message to the selectors through a strong World Twenty20 after being dropped from the Test side following a disappointing Ashes series.

Named the captain of the side on his debut against India in 2012, Bailey has experienced the added pressure, which comes with the distinction, from day one and the Tasmanian bludgeoner will need all of his leadership skills to win a first Twenty20 title for the men from Down Under.

The inclusion of 43-year-old Brad Hogg and 20-year-old James Muirhead shows that Bailey realises the importance of spin and would be hoping that Mitchell Johnson can extract some juice from the dead pitches also. Bailey will take heart from the exploits of his batsmen in the latest trip to the subcontinent – where they lost a run-fest of a series against India.

With fast bowlers expected to struggle in Bangladesh, Australia’s best bet for the tournament lies with their batsmen and boasting the likes of Glenn Maxwell, James Faulkner, David Warner and Bailey, the Australians have enough firepower to blast their way to success.

England

Despite reaching three One-Day International World Cup finals, England’s only triumph in a world event is the 2010 Twenty20 crown won in the Caribbean. Coming days before the start of the event in Bangladesh all eyes were on England’s series against the West Indies in the shortest format of the game.

However, the English succumbed to defeats in the first two matches but restored some pride with a five-run win in the third.

What appears to be a phase of transition for the side, there are a few new faces coming into the team. England will be led by Stuart Broad, with Eoin Morgan his deputy.

Ravi Bopara will have to play a crucial role in the team’s challenge with the bat and may even have to contribute with the ball after proving in the West Indies that he can be a handful on slower tracks. Meanwhile, hard-hitting players such as Jos Butler and Alex Hales will be a central part in making the runs for their side if England is to have any chance in the tournament.

West Indies

The defending champions will be looking for a second successive crown at the ICC World Twenty20 this year.

Apart from the 2007 edition where they were knocked out in the group stage, the Caribbean team’s record in the tournament has been fairly good, with the side reaching the semi-finals in 2009 and the Super Eight stage in 2010.

Darren Sammy will captain the team that has key all-rounder Kieron Pollard missing due to his ongoing recovery from a knee injury sustained in a charity football match. All eyes would be on the team’s hard-hitting batsman Chris Gayle.

While he did not come near his usual splendour in the last edition, Gayle has some impressive past performances to his name such as scoring the first century in the inaugural mega event and a blistering 88 off 50 balls assault on an Australian team including fast-bowler Brett Lee that included six fours and six sixes at the Oval in 2009.

India

If the recent Asia Cup highlighted one thing, then it was India’s dependence on their talismanic captain, Mahindra Singh Dhoni. Missing the calming presence of the wicketkeeper – both with the bat and on the field – India’s inexperience and susceptibility in defending totals were highlighted as despite gaining the advantage, they ended up on the losing side against both Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

While India’s recent record away from home has been abysmal, if there is one place where they can fancy their chances, it is on the pitches in Bangladesh.

On slow pitches that offer little bounce, India will be able to nullify the threats of pace men like Mitchell Johnson and Dale Steyn.

Expert players against spin and with Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra and Ravichandran Ashwin in their side, the spin-friendly pitches offer India their best chance of ending their reputation of backyard bullies.

With the man from Bihar back in the side, short boundaries and favourable conditions, the best batting side in the world cannot be written off and if the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli continue to click at the top of the order, then Dhoni may end up winning his fourth world event, a tally that includes ODI World Cup and Champions Trophy, besides the win in the 2007 World T20 as a captain, further cementing his place in Indian folklore.

South Africa

As far as mysterious cases in cricket go, South African captain Faf du Plessis has to be right up there. Captain of the Twenty20 side and one of the most solid batsmen in the test team, du Plessis has struggled in ODIs despite flourishing in the longest and shortest formats.

If the South Africans are to dispel the moniker of ‘chokers’ and win their first ever Twenty20 World event, du Plessis needs to ensure that he brings both aspects of his game to the fray – the temperament and pressure handling that make him such a success in Tests and the brute force and improvisation that allow him to excel in Twenty20s.

With batsmen such as AB de Villiers, Quinton de Kock, Hashim Amla and du Plessis himself, the Africans have the best batting talent. Possessing the likes of Dale Steyn and Albie Morkel to compliment the batsmen and a reputation as the best fielding side to boot, the Proteas come into the tournament with arguably the strongest team on paper and yet another failure in a major tournament will only serve to add fuel to the chokers tag.

Sri Lanka

Fresh from last month’s Asia Cup win in which the team did not lose a single match, Sri Lanka are among the favourites to take the T20 trophy this year.

The team has maintained its standard throughout all previous editions of the tournament, finishing runners-up in 2012 and 2009, semi-finalists in 2010 and reaching the Super Eight stage in 2007. Sri Lanka have won 16 of their 25 matches at the ICC World Twenty20, the joint-most tournament victories along with Pakistan.

Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan are three Sri Lankan batsmen among the 12 worldwide who have scored more than 1,000 runs in the international Twenty20 format as of January this year. The upcoming World Cup side will be captained by Dinesh Chandimal and will include all the star players who were a part of the Asia Cup.

Contenders for last two spots

Nepal

It was a nail-biting five-wicket victory off the last ball over Hong Kong in the quarter-final of the 2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE in Abu Dhabi that saw Nepal through. “Our childhood dreams have come true,” stated captain Paras Khadka after the victory. The state is reputed to have a strong spin-bowling department, in particular left-armer Basant Regmi, who was their leading bowler at the qualifiers with 14 wickets to his credit.

Ireland

Ireland team enters the World T20 with a very good win percentage in the shorter format. With 18 wins in their 34 International Twenty20 matches, Ireland have only lost 13 matches. Except for the promising statistics, Ireland have a good batting and bowling line-up streamlined for the shorter version of the game. With their victory over Nepal in the World Twenty20 warm-up match, Ireland enters the tournament with a spark that has set their rhythm up-high predicting a worthy performance in the rest of the tournament. O’Brien brothers will be setting up an Irish show in the tournament with Trent Johnston leading the bowling attack for the Irish men.



Hong Kong

Hong Kong team arrives into the World T20 scenario as a new entrant. They recently earned the International One-day team status from ICC while having no International Twenty20 experience except for the qualifying matches for the Twenty20 tournament, where they were placed sixth. Hong Kong is one team without anything to lose in this tournament. With ‘all or none’ strategy, this team stunned Zimbabwe in the warm up match before the World Twenty20. Mark Chapman, who scored a half-century against Zimbabwe to lead his team to a World T20 warm-up match victory, will be the man to deliver for Hong Kong in batting whereas Ilyas Gul and recalled Najeeb Amar will be given the task to lead the bowling department.

Zimbabwe

Despite having played in all editions of the tournament, Zimbabwe has never qualified past the group stage of the mega event. The most memorable win for the African team came against Australia in 2007 when they won by five wickets. However, that was their only win in all of the six matches that they have played in the event thus far. This time around, it will be a tough test for captain Brendon Taylor, who will lead a side that has been plagued with severe monetary issues since last year.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan team will join this year’s World T20 as a surprise package. With 50-50 win-loss ratio in the International Twenty20 matches, 11 wins and 11 loses, Afghanistan are surely going to be one of the underdogs to look out for. With their recent victory over The Netherlands in the warm-up match before the World Twenty20, Afghanistan are surely on fire before entering the arena of World T20 tournament. Wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Shahzad, who scored 589 runs in 22 matches with an average of 28.04 and strike rate of 124.78, is going to be the key batsman for the Afghans, while leg-break bowler Samiullah Shenwari is going to be their bowling spearhead with 21 wickets in 22 matches at an average of 17.23.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh will join this year’s International tournament as the strongest underdogs. With 33 International Twenty20 matches played, 9 wins and 24 loses, Bangladesh can pull off a set-back against any team in the tournament. The Bengal Tigers, who beat UAE in their warm-up match, would be as fierce as a wounded tiger ready to avenge Afghanistan in their first league match of the tournament. Tamim Iqbal will act as the premier batsman for Bangladesh’s batting with 608 runs in 28 matches with a strike rate of  109.54  while Abdur Razzak will be bowling his slow left-arm orthodox overs justifying his 39 wickets in 28 matches. Shakib Al Hassan will be pitching in with all-round performance supporting both the batting and bowling departments.

The Netherlands

The Netherlands, who were placed fifth in the ICC World T20 qualifying group, come into the tournament having claimed a victory against England in the first match of the 2009 World Twenty20. The Dutch recently played two warm-up matches against Afghanistan and Hong Kong but lost both of them. For Netherlands, the shining star in the batting department would be Steven Myburgh, who scored a half-century against Hong Kong in the warm-up match while in the bowling department Van der Gugten and Ahsan Jamil would try to deliver for the Dutch.

UAE

A country more known for hosting the matches of other teams, the UAE will see its national team compete for the first time in the championship during the upcoming tournament in Bangladesh. The team finished fourth in the 2013 ICC World T20 Qualifier and will have to play another qualifying round for a chance to enter the Super 10 round. Led by Multan-born Khurram Khan, 12 of the 15 players in the UAE squad are a mix of expatriates from Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2014.

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