As the English cricketing summer fades away, attention turns to Down Under for the T20 Cricket World Cup in Australia, with what many fans believe might be the most open competition to date.
With the preliminary group stage just around the corner, many new fans of the sport are wondering how the tournament will work and who’s going to win.
Format of the Competition:
Qualifying
The first round of the competition is the qualifying group stage. Here there are eight teams split into two different groups. Group A consists of Namibia, The Netherlands, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates, while group B contains Ireland, Scotland, the West Indies and Zimbabwe.
These countries play each other once, and at the end of the group stage the top two from each group progress into the ‘Super 12,’ while the other two return home.
This format allows more chance for the ‘smaller’ cricketing nations to compete on the world stage, so they don’t have to play the likes of India, England and Australia in what some would see as pointless qualifiers.
Super 12
The Super 12 consists of the four teams from the qualifying round as well as the top seven ICC ranking T20 sides as well as the host nation.
The remaining nations are split into two groups. Group A contains Afghanistan, New Zealand, England and the host nation, Australia, as well as the winner from qualifying group A and runner up from qualifying group B. Group B is made up by Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and South Africa.
Each side plays five games, playing each country in their group once. The top two from each group then progress into the semi finals.
Semi Finals/ Final
The last stage of the tournament is the semi finals and the final. The winners of group A play the the runners up of group B, whilst group B’s winners play the runner up from group A, with the winners progressing into the final.
Who to look out for
Many people across the cricketing world are saying this has the potential to be one of the most competitive World Cup we’ve seen, since its formation back in 2007.
Due to the COVID 19 pandemic the 2020 World Cup was moved to 2021, where Australia came away world champions beating New Zealand in the final.
A year later and many still see Australia as the tournament favourites, but feel as if New Zealand have fallen off.
According to the bookies, nothing can separate the current world champions and their bitter rivals England, who are both listed at 3/1 to go all the way.
England have just come off the back of an incredible warm up series against Pakistan, winning the series in a final deciding game to seal a 4-3 series victory. Just last night England beat Australia by nine runs, with Alex Hales and captain Joe Buttler putting on a first wicket stand of 131 in just 11.2 overs.
As per usual, India will fancy their chances. With plays like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma capable of playing some destructive cricket. But seam bowler Jasprit Bumrah’s injury ruling him out of the entire tournament will be a massive loss for them.
Finally a team who could very easily turn a few heads is Pakistan. Their opening partnership of captain Babar Azam and wicket keeper Mohammed Rizwan is regarded as the best opening partnership in world T20 cricket.
The pair put on a 203 run partnership with Babar scoring 110 not out of 66 balls, whilst Rizwan scored 88 not out off just 51 deliveries, sealing a 10 wicket victory over England in the T20 warm up series.
The World Cup is set to be a true spectacle, with the best players in the world showcasing their abilities, for devoted cricket fans or the casual viewer, it is not one to miss out on.
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