A question, which can be very common, but is very hard to answer. Which country will win the upcoming T20 world cup? Will it be India or Pakistan again, which unfortunately has problems with injuries in its playing 11? Will it be Australia, which has yet to prove its supremacy in this shorter format of cricket? Or, will it be West Indies, the host nation that can have a home advantage? Sri Lanka, South Africa and England are also in the race. Is there any team that can unanimously be forecasted as the champion? It will be ironical to look at Afghanistan and Zimbabwe, but who knows...anything can happen in the game of cricket.
I have a doubt on the potential of the team selected for India. The blaster Viru has been ruled out due to injury. The primary batsmen Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh are out of form ( They had series of unimpressive performances in this IPL)and Ravindra Jadeja is rusted. However inclusion of inform batsmen, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Murali Vijay could be positive parts. Bowling attacks look superb though. One player that should be included is Irfan Pathan, who had impressed with both bat and ball in the IPL.
Pakistan has recently been hit by controversies that saw bans over their ace batsmen Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf. The team clearly seems to be lacking unity. But, one thing is true. Pakistan is a very unpredictable team that can rise from nowhere. So, watch out for them.
Australia will have pressure to prove that they can be number one in T20 as well. Alas, they had been an upset in the last two editions of T20 world cup. This time, Australia has a much younger side with players specialized in this format. It won't surprise me if they will win the tournament.
Despite having great players in the team, South Africa and England do not seem very appealing for me. New Zealand is once again a dark horse. Let's leave Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe out of comment. I would be more than surprise if they could make it to the final.
One team, on which I want to bet is West Indies. Let's forget that they are a host nation. Look at the team composition. They have a long list of T20 specialist players. Chris Gayle, Dyane Bravo, keiron Polard are some of the big names. Who can question on the capacity of Shivnaraine Chandrapaul and Ramnaresh Sharvan? I have also heard a lot about Narsingh Deonaraine. It would be interesting to watch him on action. Ravi Rampaul, Jerome Taylor and Kemar Roach are good enough to attack with balls. West Indies could create miracle.
src: www.smh.com.au
Apart from all the analysis, I would say every team has equal opportunity to win the cup. T20 is very attacking game. The one which play better in the game would be the one win it.
