Just seven months out from the T20 World Cup in India the tournament is wide open, with seven teams a realistic chance of claiming the trophy.`
India, Australia, England, the West Indies, Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa all have sufficient talent to lift the World Cup.
The high-scoring, highlights-producing nature of T20 has long been considered its biggest strength. Yet to me its greatest appeal is the unpredictability of results – the way in which the condensed format reduces the gulf between teams and ensures more frequent upsets.
Typically, leading into an ODI World Cup, there are one or two clear favourites for the tournament and perhaps another two teams with a chance of stealing the trophy.
In a T20 World Cup, though, the field tends to widen greatly. Take the Windies, for example. The men from the Caribbean are the world’s ninth-ranked T20I team yet, at full strength, they are an intimidating side.
The reason they’re ranked so low is partly that many of their stars regularly miss bilateral T20I series due to their commitments as franchise league globetrotters. The Windies batting, in particular, is lethal.
They have seemingly endless game-breaking hitters like Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard, Evin Lewis, Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Gayle and Lendl Simmons. No team on the planet boasts the same level of raw hitting power.
The Windies’ closest match in that respect might be the world’s number one T20I side England.
It was those two sides that competed in the last T20 World Cup final, five years ago, when an extraordinary late burst of sixes from Carlos Brathwaite earned the Windies a thrilling win.
England are a better T20I side now than then. While their batting line-up hasn’t changed greatly in that time, England’s bowling has been boosted by the addition of express quicks Jofra Archer and Mark Wood. That pair have been brilliant for England as they’ve pushed India in their current five-match T20I series in India.
England’s major weakness is the lack of bowling depth beyond Archer, Wood and champion leg spinner Adil Rashid. Support bowlers Tom Curran, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes all have T20I records that range from ordinary to awful. But T20 is not a format that demands a side have every base covered in order to win a tournament.
England’s dynamic batting, coupled with the talents of Archer, Wood and Rashid make them one of the favourites for the upcoming World Cup.
(AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
For me, they still rank behind India who have the experience, home advantage, and depth and variety of talent to win the tournament.
In Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul they have a top four who have dominated the Indian Premier League for years and have an innate understanding of how to make T20 runs in Indian conditions.
India’s middle-order has been in a state of flux for some time. But they have a wealth of attractive options to bat between five and seven in Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja and Krunal Pandya. With the ball, meanwhile, India have perhaps the world’s most complete T20I attack.
Jasprit Bumrah is, for mine, the best fast bowler in the format. Fellow quicks Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shardul Thakur are well-rounded T20 operators who can threaten with the new ball and also shine at the death. Then there’s India’s trump card – their ludicrously-deep spin reserves.
India have at least five international-standard T20 spinners – Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin and Jadeja. Any of those five slow bowlers have the ability to make a massive impact at the World Cup.
Australia, meanwhile, have issues at five and six in their batting order but are excellent elsewhere. No team has a better-performed top four in T20Is than David Warner, Aaron Finch, Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell. In the past four years, that quartet have a combined average of 39 at a blazing strike rate of 150.
With the ball, Australia are neck-and-neck with India as the world’s best T20I attack. On dry Indian pitches, Australia will boast in-form spin pair Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa, the world’s fourth and sixth-ranked bowlers in this format.
(Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)
They also have aggressive pace options in Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Jhye Richardson to complement the fine death bowling skills of Kane Richardson.
New Zealand, too, have a very well rounded T20I attack. Like Australia and India, they have terrific spin options. Left armer Mitchell Santner and leggie Ish Sodhi have been consistently excellent for the past three years now. The Kiwis also have a good mix of experience, speed and swing among their pace stocks thanks to the presence of Trent Boult, Lockie Ferguson and Tim Southee.
With the blade New Zealand have a blend of gifted veterans, like Kane Williamson and Martin Guptill, and exciting newcomers like Devon Conway and Glenn Phillips. While the Kiwis don’t have quite the same depth as India, for example, they have enough talent to win the World Cup if they peak at the right time.
The same goes for Pakistan, a perennially underrated T20I side. Their laboured efforts in Tests and ODIs in recent years have distracted from the fact Pakistan have long been an excellent team in the shortest format. Their batting line-up is anchored by the super-consistent pair of Babar Azam and Mohammad Hafeez, with the fireworks provided by brutal strikers like Fakhar Zaman and Iftikhar Ahmed.
(Harry Trump-IDI/IDI via Getty Images)
Pakistan also have the luxury of two elite keeper-batsmen in Mohammad Rizwan and Sarfraz Ahmed, both of whom have been in brilliant T20I batting touch. Their bowling boasts strike quicks Shaheen Afridi, Hasan Ali and Haris Rauf together with skilful spinners Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim and rookie leg spinner Usman Qadir.
Then there’s South Africa. In all three formats, the Proteas are not quite the same team they were two or three years ago due to a host of retirements. Yet they still have enough world-class players to be a dark horse for the World Cup. Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis, Rassie van der Dussen and David Miller offer their batting line-up a nice mix of consistency and dynamism.
They also have a battery of fine T20I quicks to pick from in Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Chris Morris and Andile Phehlukwayo, plus the world’s number two ranked bowler – left-arm wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsi.
From among all those sides there really is no dominant World Cup favourite. India would be my pick, due to their quality, experience and home advantage, with Australia just behind them. But any of those seven aforementioned teams could easily snare the Cup.
Tigerbill44
Roar Guru
For me their depth in talents make India the favorites.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
You could say that for NZ, Australia and South Africa. No country has their full squad playing all the time, with Test players away, yet many of them are first picked in domestic auctions, such as Smith, Warner, Cummins. Meanwhile one of your fancies has their squad playing almost exclusively T20, just not together in the national team in lead ins, hence the Windies being ranked so low. It's a raffle at the best of times.
Bobbo7
Guest
Very true. Often top players are rested during T20 legs of tours. While India beat NZ 5-0 a while ago there were two super overs. India favourites but England or NZ next for consistency. What NZ has now is good players of spin. Australia - who knows. Full strength a good side too.
Lara
Guest
I hope India wins......just want to see their supporters go nuts!
matth
Roar Guru
Like most on here I believe it is India's cup to lose. For me the dangers are England and the West Indies. This is basically because if these two sides can slide through the pool games they only have to produce one or two performances to win and they have the batsmen that, while inconsistent, can go ballistic and put a game out of reach. So if lightning strikes twice they win.
13th Man
Roar Rookie
Yeah fair enough. It's India's to lose. The amount of A grade players that didn't even play in that England series tells you how much more depth they have than any other side. Bumrah and Jadeja are surely walk up starts that didn't play against England, potentially Shikhar Dhawan as well, although Kishan and Yadav may well push him out.
Ryan
Guest
Yeah, I meant this for the overall audience. I am surprised Ronan didn't call out India as favorite home or away in T20I, but said wide-open. Here is the stat : India beat NZ in NZ 5-0; Oz in Oz 2-1, England in England 2-1, SA in SA 2-1, SL in SL (all the matches in recent times)... what more do we want?
josh
Roar Rookie
as it is and as it will always be (for the immediate future), India, England, and NZ.
13th Man
Roar Rookie
So basically what your telling me is India will always win in India, and are still a very good chance outside India.. Yep, exactly what I said.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
It's certainly open as Ronan correctly indicates, it's the format where most nations don't play their best side all the time, hence rankings are irrelevant. There's no reason for selectors to go with convention either as international players essentially retired for a coupla years could and should be picked if in form. It's also the format where a largely different team can be played in next year's WC and there'll be little criticism as players retire from international and concentrate on this format exclusively.
Ryan
Guest
Even after losing 4 tosses, bowling under dew conditions without the services of all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, India beat world no. 1 side England in the five-match T20I series 3-2. They probably have more strength in depth because of the IPL and the T20 cricket they play and the fact that they have just beaten England without probably three main bowlers, they are the team to beat.
Ryan
Guest
Home advantage, hmmm Results of the last 3 T20 Series between India and England - 1) 2016 (in India) - Ind won the series 2-1 2) 2018 (in England) - Ind won the series 2-1 3) 2021 (in India) - Ind won the series 3-2 (Eng won the toss 4 times)
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Hi Bernie.. Yes Datsun Shield was the inaugural ODI series played in whites eventually evolving into The Benson and Hedges played in different colors…. Graeme Pollocks home ground was St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth, but post South Africa’s isolation in 1972 retired quite young from cricket.. Was then enticed a few years later to Johannesburg and played for many years for Transvaal at The Wanderers.. During domestic Currie Cup games we would be at work listening on the radio..if Pollock came into bat, we would take lunch and all pile into cars and rush off to the stadium about 5 min away to watch him bat. Then back to work. That clip was his Transvaal days.. Those type of crowds during the years of isolation were the norm.. Ironically it was the return to international cricket that did so much harm to domestic cricket..
Once Upon a Time on the Roar
Roar Guru
Hey JN what was Datsun Shield? Was that the one day comp before coloured clothes because your first class comp was currie cup wasn't it? Also what was Graeme Pollock's home ground? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeU2FD2omY4
Caractacus
Guest
India have got to start as favourites and strong favourites at that, there is a bit of any team can beat any other on the day in T20 but India hold all the aces, especially home advantage. England are a chance but they do have weaknesses and not just in the bowling so I’d definitely swap Hales for Bairstow. Most of the other teams mentioned are a capable but I just can’t see them outperforming India consistently enough to win the tournament.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
To be fair they did actually draw a semi against Aussies.. Donald's dropped bat and all. But Aussies who eventually won got through on a superior tournament run rate....it was the tournament held in South Africa that stung the most with Pollock getting incorrect info on the Duckworth Lewis System and passing that onto his players resulting in elimination at the pool stages.. Cost Polly his job as captain but it actually wasn't his fault.
Once Upon a Time on the Roar
Roar Guru
I think the ADV era has probably passed? But yeah, South Africa never winning a world cup in proper one day cricket is as big a mystery as QLD taking nearly 70 years to win our first ever sheffield shield – bigger mystery in fact. 1999 was almost certainly their biggest missed opportunity, and they choked in the semi in 2015 against what wasn’t in my opinion a particularly formidable kiwi side.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Please, please, please Ronan do not talk up South Africa’s chances.. :laughing:… Every World Cup ODI and T20 virtually we’ve gone in as one of the pre tournament favorites and guess what?… You would do us all a big favor by writing us off.. That may work.. But more seriously 7 of the South African team are regular IPL players so the sub continent conditions won’t faze them too much.. Would be nice tho if SA can coax AB De Villiers out of retirement one last time….
Jack
Guest
Not that they can win anything but will be nice to see PNG debut at a senior World Cup. Cricket is the second largest sport in png
Once Upon a Time on the Roar
Roar Guru
I was watching an excellent movie two nights ago, 'Troy', which I'd only seen once before, some 11 years ago. The essence of what T20 is dawned on me: if we equate this 3 and a half hour master piece to a proper one day match i.e. 50 overs a side, then T20 is basically if the producers chopped off the first two to two and a half hours and began the film only at the point where they actually built the horse, therefore truncating it to a 70-80 minute movie.