On Saturday, in India, the first of the ICC T20 World Cup matches will be played: and it will feature the defending champs, and tournament favourites India vs the United States.
That should be a thrashing for the homeside.
On the same day, two other games will be played – Pakistan meet Netherlands, while the West Indies square up against Scotland.
Controversy has already gripped the tournament with the Scots taking the place of Bangladesh who point blank will NOT come to India to play a match fearing security breaches, and Pakistan refusing to turn up for their clash with arch-rivals India, in India.
Bangladesh, to be fair, DID want to be part of the tournament, so they requested all their matches be played in Sri Lanka, which the ICC turned down stating as ‘their is no credible threat to your safety if you play in India.’
Easy for them to say, but that’s why the Bangladeshy Tigers aren’t there.
That all aside,18 other nations will be at these championships which culminate in a Grand Final at, well who knows, on 8 March. The mystery is because Pakistan will not play in India and India will not play in Pakistan should either of them make it. Hold the phone on that one folks.
Will the Aussie make it through to the final? We are in Group B, alongside Sri Lanka, Ireland, Zimbabwe and Oman, so we look well poised to strike.
India is in Group A: with Pakistan, USA, Namibia and Netherlands.
Group C consists of: England, Scotland, West Indies, Italy and Nepal.
Group D: Afghanistan, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and UAE.
The teams meet the others in their Group once with the top two sides advancing to the next round.
That stage is called the Super 8, and it gets divided into two pools of four teams.
The top pair in each Super 8 pool make it through to the semi finals.
Now, early prediction, or statement anyway, should all the top seeds in each of the Group stages make it through, due to pre-arranged seedings, the first games of the Super 8s will be England v Sri Lanka, while the Kiwis play Pakistan. India, Australia, South Africa and the Windies play in the other Super 8 pool.
England will begin their bid to win the championships against Nepal in Mumbai on 8 February. Josh Tongue, who was in Australia at the Ashes, will be in the squad alongside a now uninjured Jofra Archer.
The Poms squad is:
Harry Brook (captain), Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Tom Banton, Jacob Bethell, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Liam Dawson, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Jamie Overton, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Josh Tongue, Luke Wood.
The top ranked Indian side is:
Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rinku Singh.
As for the Aussies, much loved captain Pat Cummins is out and yet, still no room has been found for Steve Smith, a decision that could go down in history as the worst EVER by selectors George Bailey and Tony Dodemade.
Cummins has failed to overcome his troublesome back complaint and is replaced by Ben Dwarshuis.
The Aussie squad is:
Mitchell Marsh (capt), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Cameron Green, Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matt Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Matt Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa.
The Aussies meet Ireland in their opening game on 11 February at Premadasa Stadium in Columbo, Sri Lanka. Mitch Marsh has been named captain of the opening team and it is set to be played at 8:30pm Sydney time.
After that, the Aussie meet Zimbabwe on 13 Feb, Sri Lanka on 17 Feb and Oman on 21 Feb.
It fluctuates as we know but latest markets on which nation wins this year has:
India $3.5
Australia $4.5
England $6.5
Sth Africa $7
Kiwis $9
Pakistan $11
Windies $15
Sri Lanka $17
Write you own ticket the rest.
Good luck punters.