T20 World Cup Preview - Australia favourites but India, England and SA confident...

In what promises to be the most competitive World Cup ever with playing standards rising all the time among the ‘smaller’ nations South Africa might consider themselves fortunate to be in Group ‘B’ with Group ‘A’ containing five of the top eight ranked teams in the world including overwhelming and perennial favourites, Australia.

Now under the captaincy of Alyssa Healy following Meg Lanning’s retirement last year, Australia will be aiming for a fourth consecutive T20 World Cup title having won an extraordinary 20 consecutive matches at ICC events. But they have lost a bilateral series to England during that time and lost matches to South Africa and the West Indies, so they are not invincible.

India have reached the semifinals in the last three tournaments and are stronger than ever before while New Zealand can never be discounted. Pakistan and Sri Lanka may be the outsiders in the group although traditionally slow-scoring Pakistan recently posted their highest score (181-4) to beat South Africa while Sri Lanka shocked India to beat India in the final of the Asia Cup.

Australia’s victory in the last final at Newlands came at the expense of the host nation and captain Laura Wolvaardt believes that it could represent a turning point for her team:

“Reaching our first-ever World Cup final in 2023 was a big landmark moment for us. It was a big ‘breaking the barriers and pushing the boundaries’ moment for the team,” Wolvaardt said.

“Before that, we'd made the semifinals on a number of occasions, so to be able to go that one step further was very important for us as a group. Now we'd like to go that one step further and lift the trophy, but anything can happen in a final in T20 cricket once you've played a whole competition to get there.”

South Africa will be favoured to beat Bangladesh and surprise, first-time qualifiers, Scotland, and if they beat the West Indies too then it should affect another semifinal appearance if they lost their group match to second favourites England. And as all sports men and women know, anything can happen once the knockout stages begin.

Group ‘A’: Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Group ‘B’: England, South Africa, West Indies, Bangladesh, Scotland.

Winners:

2009 – England beat New Zealand by 6-wickets

2010 – Australia beat New Zealand by 3-runs

2012 – Australia beat England by 4-runs

2014 – Australia beat England by 6-wickets

2016 – West Indies beat Australia by 8-wickets

2018 – Australia beat England by 8-wickets

2020 – Australia beat India by 85-runs

2023 – Australia beat South Africa by 19-runs

SA Fixtures:

October 4 – v West Indies (Dubai)

October 7 – v England (Sharjah)

October 9 – v Scotland (Dubai)

October 12 – v Bangladesh (Dubai)

October 17 & 18 – Semifinals (Dubai & Sharjah)

October 20 – Final (Dubai)

Players to watch

Beth Mooney (Australia) – Since making her senior team debut for the Queensland Fire at the age of 16 Mooney played in 74 ODIs and over 100 T20 Internationals becoming one of the most consistent batters in world cricket and valuable asset to Franchise teams in India and England as well as Australia.

Twice a winner of the WBBL with her home state, Queensland, she switched the Brisbane Heat for the Perth Scorchers where she also led them to their first title.

Alyssa Healy’s automatic selection as Australia’s wicketkeeper has meant Mooney playing most of her international career as a specialist batter – which may even have made her better. Three ODI centuries and two in T20Is, to go with 23 half-centuries and a strike rate of 123.6 makes her one of the most respected (and feared) batters in the world.

Hayley Matthews (West Indies) – A choice between cricket and track and field in which she was a successful junior javelin thrower has proved highly successful for the Barbados allrounder who made her debut for her country’s senior team at the astonishing age of just 12.

Matthews was a seasoned ‘veteran’ by the time of her international debut in 2014 at the age of 16 and two years later, shortly after her 18th birthday, she was playing the lead role in winning the T20 World Cup with a run-chase innings of 66 from 45 balls to beat Australia in the final.

Six ODI centuries and two more in T20Is tell only half the story. Her off-breaks have earned her 100 ODI wickets and in the shortest format she needs just one more to complete her second century of wickets.

Laura Wolvaardt (South Africa) – Woolvaardt postponed her degree in medicine to pursue her burgeoning cricket career which began when she made her international debut as a 16-year-old schoolgirl. Nine years later she is national captain and a much sought after opening batter in India’s WPL, Australia’s Big Bash and The Hundred in England.

Always famous for her sumptuous cover drive, the right hander has added more shots to her repertoire every year to become the complete, multi-format, multi-surface run machine with eight centuries in 98 ODIs and 1765 runs in 72 T20Is at an average of 35.3.

Sophie Ecclestone (England) – Yet another child prodigy who was playing senior club cricket aged just 13 and county cricket for Lancashire at 16 before her England debut just a year later. Her left arm spin is famously frugal and her economy rates are the envy of all other spinners – 3.6 in ODIs and just 5.85 in T20Is – but that only serves as a distraction from her main job of taking wickets.

Ecclestone has bagged 108 wickets in just 66 ODIs and no less than 126 in 86 T20 Internationals and is not only unerringly accurate but has deadly, subtle variations. She can also be very useful in T20 the lower order where she has a highest score of 33*, an average of 18 and a strike rate of 126.

Deepti Sharma (India) – One of the world’s premier allrounders capable of batting in the top order and taking regular wickets with her off-spin Sharma has become a household name in her own country and readily admits she is still getting used to the fame and recognition as the women’s game burgeons in popularity thanks to franchise cricket and, particularly, the WPL.

She has over 100 wickets in both formats with a highest score of 188 in ODIs and an average of 35.4 but it is her cameos with the bat in T20 cricket where her most important impacts are made.

Sadia Iqbal (Pakistan) – Unlike the other stars featured here Sadia Iqbal was a late starter not making her international debut until she was 24 but she has wasted no time in stamping her authority on the game, particularly in the T20 format.

Tagged as a spinner with ‘a fast bowler’s attitude’ the left armer is more inclined to attack, looking for wickets rather than happy to bowl dot balls. And with 53 in just 43 matches at an average of only 18 and an economy rate of just 5.6, the policy is clearly working.