The ICC T20 world cup is going to start on the 5th of June. Cricket pundits have already started announcing their predictions about different teams. The following is a brief overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the participating teams.
England will have a huge advantage of playing at home, although they have a quite ordinary T20 record, they have played 15 T20 matches, Won 6 and lost 9. This year their team has performed reasonably well.
They have a decent pace attack, both Stuart Broad and James Anderson are bowling well they also have two good spinners, their batting however lacks variety and firepower. They will miss Andrew Flintoff.
Players to watch
Kevin Peiterson, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Adil Rashid
Australia has played 21 T20 matches have won 11 and lost 10, this year they played 7 t20 matches, they won from Newzealand, lost to Pakistan and West Indies and squared the 4 match series with South Africa.
Most of the cricket pundits have already written the Australians off due to their indifferent form this year, I think they still have a pretty decent side, their batting has the fire power and their bowling has some big names, all they are missing is a quality spinner. Australia will qualify for semi finals for sure.
Players to watch
Mitchel Johnson, Brad Haddin, Micheal clarke, Micheal Hussey, Hopes.
Pakistan has the best T20 record they have played 17 matches, Won 13 and lost only 3 one was tied. But since the last T20 WC Pakistan has not played a lot of International cricket as compared to some of the other teams lack of exposure to International cricket will hurt their chances, they will also miss Mohammad Asif and Imran Nazir. The key to Pakistan’s chances lie with their openers, I think PCB made a fatal error by selecting Salman Butt and Ahmed Shahzad for this format, the bowling line up looks good, Afridi and Ajmal will play a key role but Pakistan’s real chances depend upon the form of Sohail Tanvir and Umar Gul.
The players know that under performance in a WC can end their careers, now that the ICL players have returned the pressure will be on the key players especially the openers to perform, the pressure will also be on Younis Khan to lead from the front as he took over from Malik who was doing fine as a captain.
Pakistan has a realistic chance of making to the semi finals. Their strength and preperation will be revealed in the practice match against India and South Africa.
Players to watch
Misbah Ul Haq, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik and Saeed Ajmal.
South Africa has a pretty decent T20 record they have played 18 T20 matches and have won 11 and lost 7 matches, this year they played 5 matches and won 3 and lost 2 both against Australia.
Their have a very balanced team and have a strong leader, they will also benefit from the experience and exposure they gained from this years IPL. They have a very strong batting line up and their pace attack is perhaps the best in the world again they lack in the spin department, they do rely heavily on Smith in all forms of cricket who is a bit out of form, but they do have some power hitters like Duminy, Boucher, AB Devilliers and Morkel brothers. If South Africa ever had a chance to win any World cup this is it.
They are my favorites to reach the finals.
The defending champions India have played 13 T20 matches out of which they have won 7 and lost 4, in last 12 months they have played 3 matches out of which they won 1 and lost 2, both against New zealand.
India has the most balanced team with a very smart leader, they have played a lot of cricket in last two years it is feared that their players might be suffering from fatigue. India depends a lot on their opening duo of Sehwag and Gambhir both of whom have displayed indifferent form during the IPL, their Young players Raina and Rohit through out this year have remained inconsistent but they have too much depth in their batting and even if one or two players click they can post a formidable score. Their bowling has also variety and experience, but somehow their pace bowlers donot bowl economically in the limited overs cricket. Their chances will largly depend on the battting of Sehwag, Gambhir and Dhoni, their bowling will depend largely on Zahir Khan and RP singh.
India are most likely to be the second finalists. But if Sehwag and Gambhir doesn’t find form or struggle in the English conditions then India will be in trouble.
Players to watch
Sehwag, Gambhir, Yousuf Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Dhoni
Pakistan won…awesome !!
TJ
T20 is all about execution of plan and playing a strong combination, it’s strange that the team management and the selectors make a deliberate effort to play a weak combination and the matches we lose normally their is no intent to win.
It’s pathetic that Fawad Alam got a game but never got a chance to bat, Shoaib Malik needs to bat higher.
He was in form with the bat but if he is going to come so late then we are not utilizing him properly.
Salman Butt was dropped but his replacement Shahzaib scored a duck makes perfect sense why he was selected over Nasir jamshed so that Salman’s place is not threatened.
How on earth do we predict a winner!
I think the bookies stand to make a lot of money.
Pakistan were pathetic. For a team to not have played cricket for so long, you’d think they’d show some fight. They just rolled over and died.
Pakistan showed no intent to win this match, an extremely selfish display of cricket by individual players nobody wanted to take the opposition to task, shameful performance. With this kind of attitude and leadership YK’s team can’t even beat Netherland.
The openers set the tone of a innings in a T20 match, as predicted Salman Butt and Ahmed Shehzad failed to do the job, they do not have the strokemaking ability to consistently score 10 an over, Younis Khan is a liability in this format he was playing as if it was test match. Pakistan will have to do some drastic changes if they have to win this tournament. It seems they are following the same blue print.
SA batting first scored 186/7. Smith led fro the front scoring a 53 ball 70, Gibbs scored a 22 ball 42 however it was a late cameo by Morkel which surged SA’s score to 186.
Tanvir and Umar Gul got thrashed all over the Park.
South Africa opts to bat first.
Teams
South Africa: 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Herschelle Gibbs, 3 Jacques Kallis, 4 AB de Villiers, 5 JP Duminy, 6 Roelof van der Merwe, 7 Mark Boucher (wk), 8 Albie Morkel, 9 Johan Botha, 10 Wayne Parnell, 11 Dale Steyn.
Pakistan: 1 Salman Butt, 2 Ahmed Shehzad, 3 Younis Khan (capt), 4 Misbah-ul-Haq, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Kamran Akmal (wk), 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Sohail Tanvir, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Rao Iftikhar Anjum.
Younis khan continues with his seniority based selection, Fawad Alam is not playing and so is Mohammad Aamer.
Bangladesh has sent chills down in the Indian camp. 122/3 in 12 overs Shakib Ul hassan is blazing all guns.