The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 in the West Indies and the USA will see 20 nations from around the world battle for the trophy between 1 and 29 June. James Richardons previes the tournament.
The ninth edition of the T20 World Cup will be the biggest one yet with 20 teams playing 55 matches across nine cities.
Co-hosts West Indies and defending champions England are the most successful nations in the T20 World Cup as the only nations to repeat winning the title.
Here we take a look at each group and make predictions for which teams will reach the super eights phase that follows the first group phase.
Group A: India, Pakistan, Ireland, Canada, USA
On paper, it looks like India (28/10) and Pakistan (12/1) should dominate this group although both Ireland and the USA have recently secured big upset wins.
The highly-anticipated blockbuster India vs Pakistan Group A clash will be played at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on 9 June.
When India and Pakistan clashed at the T20 World Cup in 2022, Virat Kohli was the hero with an unbeaten 82 that sealed an improbable victory for his team against their arch-rivals.
Ireland (250/1) defeated Pakistan in a T20I in the last month which should demonstrate that the top teams cannot afford to be complacent.
Equally, Ireland will need to guard against slip-ups against Canada (1000/1) and the USA (1000/1) so they stay within range of India and Pakistan to secure an upset progression.
US cricket has come a long way in a short time and a recent T20I win over Bangladesh underlined that fact.
Group A Verdict: India and Pakistan progress
India should have little trouble navigating Group A. Pakistan should be the other team to progress, provided they don’t slip up against the Irish.
Group B: England, Australia, Namibia, Scotland, Oman
England (5/1) and Australia (7/2) come into this World Cup as two of the form teams in the T20 arena.
Australia will be powered by players who are doing very well indeed with Mitchell Starc helping the Kolkata Knight Riders lift the IPL trophy, meanwhile Travis Head also had a great tournament.
England are also formidable and Jos Buttler is clearly one of the best batters in T20 cricket anywhere in the world. They have also been greatly strengthened by the return of Jofra Archer who pairs with Chris Jordan to make up a lethal pace attack for England.
Scotland (500/1) and Namibia (500/1) might eye the upsets over the top teams and both sides are capable of pulling something off on the day.
On slower pitches Namibia’s spin weapon Gerhard Erasmus might prove to be a real T20 World Cup dark horse and they can still call on the hugely experienced former Proteas star David Wiese for this campaign.
Scotland’s dangerman will be left-hand batter George Munsey, who has added another dimension to the Scots game in the white-ball game.
Oman (1000/1) might push Scotland and Namibia but shouldn’t trouble the group favourites much.
Group B Verdict: England and Australia progress
There’s only one outcome here. England and Australia to progress out of one of the tournament’s weaker groups.
Group C: New Zealand, West Indies, Afghanistan, Uganda, Papua New Guinea
New Zealand (10/1) and the West Indies (8/1) have the misfortune of being drawn alongside dangerous Afghanistan (33/1) in a group that is a clear three-horse race.
Uganda (1000/1), who are making their T20 World Cup debut, and Papua New Guinea (1000/1) will suffer from the gulf in class between themselves and the other three members of the group. The biggest match for these teams could be when they go head-to-head and have a chance to pick up their first win in T20 World Cup history.
Afghanistan though will be a big threat especially if they can get dynamic opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz firing early on and in confident form. By this time everyone is familiar with Rashid Khan but that doesn’t make the master leg-spinner any easier to face.
New Zealand don’t have the flashiest squad but they would love to get beyond the semi-final stage in this tournament for a first time. They have plenty of explosive batters at the top of the order but Finn Allen is one who could match even the best in the world in the powerplay. New Zealand might find that their unglamorous left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner could also prove to be their key bowler in conditions that could start to play slower and lower as the tournament goes on.
The West Indies’ most important batter might be someone who doesn’t try to hit the leather off the ball but rather the handy accumulator Shai Hope who can keep things ticking over between the boundaries that fuel the West Indies run-scoring. After his start-turn against South Africa, this could be a World Cup to remember for West Indies star leg-spinner Gudakesh Motie.
PNG’s run-getting stalwart Tony Ura will have a tough time maintaining his scoring rate through this tournament but Uganda’s Mumbai-born left-arm spinner Alpesh Ramjani might be the player for the World Cup debutants who really surprises.
Group C Verdict: New Zealand and West Indies progress
This is a really tough Group to call. Afghanistan could really set the cat among the pigeons. I’m leaning toward to top two teams to claim Group spoils, however.
Group D: South Africa, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Netherlands, Nepal
South Africa (6/1) might view this as the group of death given that Sri Lanka (33/1) and Bangladesh (100/1) are capable of besting the Proteas in tournament formats and the Netherlands (300/1) inflicted a big defeat on the South Africans in the last World Cup.
To avoid disaster, South Africa need to at the very least make the Super eights phase of the competition and they will really need several key players to find good form. Heinrich Klaasen is a player that would be a match-winner in almost any XI and Kagiso Rabada is a consistent white-ball performer but the bowlers’ recent form hasn’t been sensational.
Bangladesh have welcomed back several older stars but it is really Towhid Hridoy who stands out as the form batter in the group while Mustafizur Rahman has also threatened to find his best bowling rhythm.
Sri Lanka will turn to the experience of Kusal Mendis to carry their batting attack and hope that he can get the balance right and set things up for their finisher Charith Asalanka. Slingy fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana is already drawing comparisons with Lasith Malinga and he could be the one to inflict more World Cup pain on South Africa.
The Netherlands have had to deal with the loss of experienced players but have seen players like seamer Logan van Beek and late blooming allrounder Sybrand Engelbrecht have propelled them to good results.
Nepal would do well to be competitive in their matches and are likely to be the whipping boys of the group.
Verdict: South Africa and Sri Lanka progress
South Africa really should have the firepower to clear what is a tricky Group. Sri Lanka are tipped to edge Bangladesh.
