Preview of ICC World T20, 2010 in West Indies
The IPL ends on the 25th of April and the ICC World T20 tournament starts almost immediately after that. Without too much break, most of the countries and its players could suffer from issues associated with fatigue and fitness worries. In this piece, I shall start previewing the chances of each of the sides that feature in the ICC World T20 that begins from the 30th of April.
India:
Previous Performance:
A blast of a performance in the 2007 edition of the ICC World T20 but damp squib in 2009. Won it in the first edition, and lost woefully in the Super Eights of the second tournament.
Strengths:
It has to be the captaincy of MS Dhoni. In the previous edition, it was for the first time since Dhoni had become the captain that one saw him lose his cool, and in turn, his side capitulated to one loss after another. But as mentioned, that was also a learning experience for the Indian captain and he seems to have learnt from that experience.
Weaknesses:
Their bowling is a definite one. Apart from Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh, the bowling lacks the experience or incisiveness to knock out the opposition, and with the likes of Vinay Kumar having yet to play an international, it also affects the back-up bowling staff for the side.
Then again, the absence of Virender Sehwag to an IPL-injury will hurt the Indians as much as it would be hurting him now!
England:
Previous Performance:
One of the more consistent teams in the competition; they have been ousted in the Super Eights round on both the occasions!
Strengths:
One needs to be careful while assessing their strengths, because England has, for years remained a mediocre team in any of the formats of the game. But one does feel that under the captaincy of Paul Collingwood, there is refreshness in the side, along with the presence of youngsters adding to the hope that England could outperform – their own previous record!
Weaknesses:
It has been their inability to come out trumps at crucial junctures in matches that has caused much grief. England’s biggest woe is their inability to play a unit and almost exhibit a lack of discipline to finish off matches.
Afghanistan:
They are the babies of international cricket, but in a short span of 2-3 years since they started playing international cricket, they have surprised everybody with their results. They finished fifth in the World Cup qualifiers and narrowly missed making it to the World Cup to be played next year, but lifted the ICC World T20 Qualifying tournament by beating Ireland in the finals.
They have never played at the international stage against a Test-playing nation, and against India and South Africa, will be a big test. They may go on to lose, but the world eyes will be on them to see, how well they perform at the biggest stage of international T20 cricket.
