The high-profile ICC World Twenty20 gets underway on Tuesday with no clear favourites but inaugural champions India will visualize their chances on the slow familiar tracks of the island nation where they have played a lot of cricket in recent times. Twelve teams are participating in the event and there will be 27 matches. These will be held till 7th October and going to be a feast for the cricket lovers. ICC T20 world cup is being held in the sub-continent for the first time. This is the fourth T20 world cup.
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| Logos of All the Participating Nations |
The participating teams are host Sri Lanka, defending champion England, former champions India and Pakistan, South Africa, Australia, West Indies, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan. Ten Test playing teams are automatically qualified while Ireland and Afghanistan played qualifier to enter the final round.India is placed in Group A along with England and Afghanistan .It is hard to estimate the title favorites in T20 matches. T20 World cup is held for every two years. The first world cup was held in 2007 in South Africa. India won the first T20 world cup where India defeated Pakistan in the final match.
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| ICC T20 World Cup Trophy |
In 2009 England hosted the second edition of T20 world cup and Pakistan was the title winner and Pakistan beat another south Asian Sri Lanka in final. Third edition was held in 2012 in west Indies and England became the champion beating Australia. India team which won the inaugural T20 world cup could not even reach even semi-finals in the next two world cup matches. There are many favorable and unfavorable factors for Indian team to win the T20 world cup that will be played in Sri Lanka. Team India which was losing all the matches that were played abroad since the world cup win, is slowly coming back into its form. In the recent one day series that was played in Sri Lanka recently, India has won the one day series and also won in the only one T20 match.
Atmosphere of Sri Lanka is similar to India and this is the most favorable thing for India. Captains of many participating teams have changed but Mahindra Singh Dhoni is leading the Indian team for the fourth time in ICC T20 World Cup matches. Most of the players in Indian team have the experience of playing in the ICC T20 world cup. One of the main problems for Indian team is its lack of steadiness .Seeded second in Group A, which clubs them along side defending champions England and qualifiers Afghanistan, India were on a high after clinching the 50-over World Cup last year. But their fortunes took a turn for the worst soon after with Test whitewashes in England and Australia but India will come as better side here in Sri Lanka.
To get the Live score with Commentry, points table, Complete Schedule and exclusive news please click on the Tournament page of cricinfo. You can go to the Tournament page clicking here
Here is the Squads of All the participating team:
Afghanistan :
Nawroz Mangal (c), Dawlat Zadran, Hamid Hassan, Javed Ahmadi, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Samiullah Shenwari, Shapoor Zadran, Asghar Stanikzai, Gulbodin Naib, Izatullah Dawlatzai, Karim Sadiq, Mohammad Shahzad, Mohammad Nasim Baras, Shafiqullah
Australia :
George Bailey (c), Shane Watson (v/c), Daniel Christian, Xavier Doherty, Brad Hogg, Michael Hussey, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Wade (wk), Cameron White, Pat Cummins, Ben Hilfenhaus, David Hussey, Clint McKay, Mitchell Starc, David Warner
Bangladesh :
Mushfiqur Rahim (c, wk), Mahmudullah (vc), Abdur Razzak, Abul Hasan, Elias Sunny, Farhad Reza, Jahurul Islam, Junaid Siddique, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mohammad Ashraful, Nasir Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Ziaur Rahman
England :
Stuart Broad (c), Jonny Bairstow, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Craig Kieswetter, Michael Lumb, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Graeme Swann, Luke Wright
India :
MS Dhoni (c, wk), Gautam Gambhir (vc), Ravichandran Ashwin, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Piyush Chawla, Ashok Dinda, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Yuvraj Singh
Ireland :
William Porterfield (c), Alex Cusack (vc),George Dockrell, Trent Johnston, Nigel Jones, Ed Joyce, Tim Murtagh, Kevin O'Brien, Niall O'Brien, Boyd Rankin, Max Sorensen, Paul Stirling, Stuart Thompson, Andrew White, Gary Wilson
New Zealand :
Ross Taylor (c), Doug Bracewell, James Franklin, Martin Guptill, Ronnie Hira, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Adam Milne, Rob Nicol, Jacob Oram, Tim Southee, Daniel Vettori, BJ Watling, Kane Williamson
Pakistan :
Mohammad Hafeez (c), Abdul Razzaq, Asad Shafiq, Imran Nazir, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Sami, Nasir Jamshed, Raza Hasan, Saeed Ajmal, Shaid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Yasir Arafat
South Africa :
AB de Villiers, (c, wk), Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Johan Botha, Jean-Paul Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Jacques Kallis, Richard Levi, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Justin Ontong, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe
Sri Lanka :
Mahela Jayawardene (c), Angelo Mathews (vc), Dinesh Chandimal (wk), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Shaminda Eranga, Rangana Herath, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis, Jeevan Mendis, Dilshan Munaweera, Akila Dananjaya, Thisara Perera, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Lahiru Thirimanne
West Indies :
Darren Sammy (c), Dwayne Bravo (vc), Samuel Badree, Darren Bravo, Johnson Charles, Fidel Edwards, Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith
Zimbabwe :
Brendan Taylor (c,wk), Elton Chigumbura, Graeme Cremer, Craig Ervine, Kyle Jarvis, Hamilton Masakadza, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Chris Mpofu, Forster Mutizwa, Richard Muzhange, Ray Price, Vusi Sibanda, Prosper Utseya, Brian Vitori, Malcolm Waller
