The Twenty20 World Cup, which started in Hambantota, SriLanka, on Tuesday, September 18, is an anomaly among global sports tournaments.In most, the competitors arrive tuned by plenty of match practice. Not so thechampionship of the newest, fastest and rowdiest of crickets three formats.
The tournament opens with what looks like a series ofmismatches, as the top seeds in each pool play the outsiders. That might,though, be illusory. England, and in particular its captain, Stuart Broad,needs no reminding of the way it opened its hosting of the 2009 T20 World Cupby losing at Lord’s in London “ the game’s historic home “ to the Netherlands.
Australia has no excuse to relax when it plays Ireland. TheAustralians came up with the most eye-catching selection of any of the squadswhen they recalled the 41-year-old spin bowler Brad Hogg, whom everybodyassumed had played his last international match four years ago.
England finds itself playing the unprecedented role ofdefending champion. The team, though, may have found in the 22-year-old batsmanJos Buttler another star who blasted 32 runs off a Wayne Parnell over earlierthis month.
England opens with its first-ever match against Afghanistan,and will be well aware that the Afghan paceman Hamid Hassan can test anybatsman. Sri Lanka has two bowlers, the paceman Lasith Malinga and the spinnerAjantha Mendis, whose sheer unorthodoxy makes them formidable T20 competitors. Thisis the one format in which Pakistan, the winner of the 2009 T20 World Cup, canbe called consistent, having advanced to the playoffs of all three previoustournaments.
India, which opens against Afghanistan , looks short ofbowling. Bangladesh is suited to the conditions, but is also over reliant onthe opening batsman Tamim Iqbal and the all-rounder Shakib al Hasan. Among thenon-Asians, South Africa is long overdue as a world tournament winner, withHashim Amla showing that T20 batting is about more than brute power.
West Indies has a downright scary batting lineup headed byChris Gayle, this format’s dominant player. In this tournament almost anythingis possible, but come October 7, watch for Pakistan’s range of bowling optionsto take it to victory over the West Indies’ ferocious batting lineup.
