CHENNAI & MELBOURNE: Sixteen teams, seven venues across the continent and oodles of expectations... the eagerly awaited T20 World Cup is set to begin Down Under on Sunday. The excitement is palpable. The first stage will begin with Sri Lanka taking on Associate nation Namibia in Geelong. With not much exposure and international matches under their belts, the Associate Nations are expected to face a lot of challenging moments.
The big teams, though, are waiting for the four teams to qualify from the first stage of the tournament. West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe are the other Test-playing nations part of the group stage. They are expected to move up the grade and join the eight teams in the Super 12s. This will be the last time that 16 teams will play in this tournament.
The 2024 event in the West Indies and the US will see 20 sides. All eyes, however, will be on India which has not won the T20 World Cup since 2007. Their campaign started with a major hiccup when Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out of the event. Mohammad Shami, who has played only 16 T20I matches, out of which eight were in World Cups, has been called in as a replacement. All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, a vital cog in the team, too missed the flight due to injury.
Yet, captain Rohit Sharma felt that India is ready for the big matches and the focus is on the strong bench. On the sidelines of the captain’s congregation in Melbourne, Rohit said, “Injury is part and parcel of the sport. Injuries will happen if we play so many matches, so our focus for the last year was that we had to build bench strength.” India begins their campaign against Pakistan on October 23 in Melbourne.