T20 World Cup 2024: Preview
A look at ICC's incompetence with terrible scheduling, pitches and a review of the top teams at cricket's first World Cup held across the West Indies and US.
Format, Scheduling, and Pitches
Unlike previous editions, this T20 World Cup is the first to have as many as 20 teams playing at the main event. Unexpected but welcome change! Teams have been divided into 4 groups of 5 with the top 2 teams from each group going into the next round, Super 8s. Every group has 2 of the top-seeded teams and 3 associate (or weaker) teams. Groups C and D are probably the tightest with Afghanistan capable of challenging New Zealand and/or West Indies, particularly if the pitches assist some spin. The Netherlands has shown their ability in the 2021 edition by beating South Africa, so that group can also get interesting.
It would be remiss to talk about the World Cup without mentioning the odd planning and scheduling. Let’s start with the fixtures - the Super 8 schedule is more or less final. This is because, the top 8 teams have been given a seed (A1, B2, and so on) even before the 1st ball is bowled. This means that even if Pakistan wins all their Group A games, India will go through as A1 (assuming India wins all but 1 of their Group A fixtures). Therefore, barring upsets, each team has a tentative idea of where and which teams they will face in the Super 8s.
Holding a World Cup across so many different countries that are geographically spread out is a challenge, however, there has been no attempt to try and make the logistics simple or try to keep all teams of a group within 2-3 close venues. Bangladesh has been dealt the worst hand as they will travel nearly 10000 Kilometers to play their games, while England and New Zealand travel under 1000 Kilometers until the end of Round 1. On top of this, India’s Semi-Final game (assuming they get there) is fixed for Guyana, which gives them an unfair advantage in planning.
During yesterday’s India-Ireland game, the best seats (with the straight view) were mostly empty because they went for as high as $1000 (or Rs 80,000). VIP Parking for the South Africa-Sri Lanka game in New York was $150 (and people still had to walk quite a bit), but they decided to raise that to $200 for an India game that was held at 10:30 AM in the middle of the week. It’s clear why 25+ million dollars were spent on a temporary pop-up stadium in New York (when there are other stadiums available) and the answer isn’t “to develop interest in Cricket” as the ICC would like to claim.
Then come the pitches - an incredibly important element when putting a tournament together. The drop-in pitches in New York (at least so far) have been inconsistent, quick, and frankly dangerous so far. The outfield has looked so terrible, that Lucknow looks like Lords in comparison. Unfortunately, the pitches in the Caribbean haven’t inspired much confidence either. Guyana had a lot of seam movement and variable bounce, while Australia seemed to be struggling to bat to ball in Barbados versus Oman until a Stoinis blinder took them to 160.
Even if we as fans give a pass to ICC for the pitches considering how complex that is, there is little justifying most of the other issues mentioned above. While associate nations participating in World Cups is great, the money spent on building the Nassau County stadium would have been better used by spending on grassroots development across associate nations. Also, if the 8 PM prime slot in India is the primary way to make money (via TV and digital rights), then why do teams like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka need to travel so much after each fixture?
Most fans probably thought it would be hard to outdo the shitshow of the BCCI in the 2023 ODI World Cup, but ICC has somehow outdone even that.
The Real Contenders - England, Australia, and India
From a squad depth and form perspective, England are the favorites. Just like the previous T20 World Cup, England has several versatile attacking batters - Jos Buttler, Phil Salt, Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, and Liam Livingstone to start. They also have a variety of all-rounders such as Sam Curran, Moeen Ali, and even Chris Jordan. This helps balance the side and provides flexibility based on the pitch. The one area that was potentially a weak point for this English side was their death bowling, but the return of Jofra Archer makes a significant difference.
With the experienced Adil Rashid and middle-over enforcer Mark Wood available, this is as well-rounded a line-up as any in the competition. On flat, high-scoring pitches the defending champs will certainly be the team to beat, although things can get tricky on seam-friendly, bouncy pitches we have seen so far. Either way, it’s hard to see England crash out before the Semi-Finals.
If there’s a team that steps up in a World Cup consistently, it’s Australia. They are the current winners of the ODI World Cup and World Test Championship, giving them a rare chance of holding all 3 ICC trophies at once. Like England’s, there is a lot of depth in this squad. In the first game versus Oman, their captain in other formats, Pat Cummins was rested. Even in the allrounders department, they have Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, and Cameron Green. Most teams would happily take all three players but Australia will likely only pick one of Stoinis and Green for most games.
In addition to their big 3 (Starc, Hazlewood, and Cummins) pace-attack, they also have Nathan Ellis who has handy variations to keep the batters guessing. A more important weapon is the spin of Adam Zampa. Zampa is one of the best LOI spinners in the world, and he showed this during the World Cup in India last year as well. The Aussies have also made a positive change by picking Tim David over Steve Smith, however, leaving out the breath-taking Jake Frasier-Mcgurk (for David Warner) is a definite miss.
Considering New Zealand’s terrible record versus them, Australia has a foot in the door for the Final 4. The key question is whether they go through as 1st (and potentially face England) or not.
In the last decade, India has always been a contender with the quality of players they have. There are a lot of big names in this Indian side. However, their key issue is the lack of specialists for each batting position and the habit of playing conservative cricket, particularly in the knockout stages. As an example, all six batters (seven if you include Shivam Dube) batted in the top 4 during the recently concluded IPL.
Although the presence of Pant, Yadav and Shivam Dube along with the intent against spin shown by Virat negates some of the concerns of scoring quickly against spin, we will have to see if they keep that intent when batting first in a Semi-Final or Final. Hardik Pandya is the only lower order batter or finisher that will get to play in the same position as he mostly does for his IPL franchise, and he hasn’t been in the best of forms.
From the bowling perspective, Ravindra Jadeja is likely to start most games but he is a defensive bowler who takes less than 1 wicket per T20I. If teams try to play out Jasprit Bumrah, then the only other weapon is Kuldeep Yadav. Arshdeep and Siraj haven’t been at their best in recent times, so they will certainly need the allrounders to step up and deliver with the ball. India had the opportunity to pick a young, aggressive team with talents like Ravi Bishnoi, Abhishek Sharma and Rinku Singh available.
Of course, this doesn’t change the fact that they are likely to get to the Semis, but are they the most exciting team in this World Cup? Far from it.
The Dark Horses - South Africa and West Indies
Surely, a number of people will be surprised by South Africa appearing as a “dark horse”. And they are right to question my instinct - since the last T20 World Cup, South Africa have won just 2 off the 11 T20Is they have played in. I still think there’s a chance they will be in the Final 4, hear me out.
In the latest T20I series they just played against the West Indies, the Saffers did not have many key players. In fact, they were led by Rassie Van der Dussen, who isn’t in the World Cup squad so we need to take those results with a pinch of salt. Here’s what they have going for them - the incredible batting depth. None of the expected top 6 batters have a strike rate under 135. All these batters have the ability to really hit hard and score quickly, and they strike quickly against both spin and pace. In addition, if the conditions are challenging, captain Aiden Markram, David Miller as well as Heinrich Klassen (arguably top 2 batter in this format) have the ability to play the anchor’s role.
From a spin bowling perspective, having the quality of Keshav Maharaj and Tabriaz Shamsi is a big plus. They also have Bjorn Fortuin who had a fantastic SA20 bowling a lot of overs in the Powerplay. Marco Jansen is the only allrounder, but he has shown he is pretty capable with the bat at 7 or 8. From the pace bowling perspective, neither Kagiso Rabada nor Anrich Nortje have been in great form recently.
However, the seaming and bouncy surfaces might help this pace attack feel right at home. Nortje already has found some rhymth against Sri Lanka with figures of 4/7. Death bowling isn’t their strength, however, they have the Gerald Coetzee and Baartman to support Kagiso Rabada in this department. All in all, this is a pretty solid team and it could come down to the West Indies v/s South Africa game in Super 8 for the winner to make the Semis.
The hosts West Indies had a terrible 2022 T20 World Cup, where they lost to Ireland and were knocked out in the 1st round itself. However, they appear to be in much better form in recent times and have the advantage of playing in conditions they will know well. In the last 12 months, West Indies have beaten India and England 3-2 at home, and recently cleaned up South Africa 3-0 as well. In addition, the return of Andre Russell and Shimron Heytmer (who decided to skip the last edition) is a big boost for the West Indies. Similar to South Africa, this team has a lot of power hitting capability as their strike rates below show.
While Jason Holder’s absence due to injury hurts the West Indies, they have plenty of allrounder options in Russell, Roston Chase and Romario Shepherd that provide batting depth and plenty of bowling options to Rovman Powell’s men. In the spin department, Akeal Hosein is a fantastic powerplay option that will be useful against teams like India and Pakistan. While all of their pacers have the ability to go for runs, many of them like Obed McCoy and Andre Russell have good slower balls that get them wickets.
With coach Darren Sammy’s experience at World Cups, and the experience that these men will carry from the CPL, West Indies is a team that’s hard to ignore.
T20 is pretty unpreditable format, and we have limited information on some of the pitches in play during this World Cup. Also, it’s not wise to underestimate New Zealand in any ICC tournament and Pakistan are always unpredictable, but barring any major upsets (like England losing a group stage game), it’s hard to see these two teams win three out of the four matches during the Super 8s and make it to the Semis.