Road to the 2010 Twenty20 World Cup

[ret]

It will be played in the WI from Apr 30th to May 16th. The teams have been divided in to the following groups:

Group A - Pakistan (A1), Bangladesh (A2) and Australia
Group B - Sri Lanka (B1), New Zealand (B2) and Zimbabwe
Group C - South Africa(C1), India (C2) and Qualifier 1 (Afghanistan)
Group D - West Indies (D1), England (D2) and Qualifier 2 (Ireland)

Schedule

For Ind, once again they will be playing it after the IPL so it has its advantages (being well oiled) and disadvantages (burn out). I hope we don't just select the team based on reputation (like we did last time) and ignore form (didn't select guys like Panday and Nehra, who looked better than some of the guys selected)

Below is the list of probables for Ind:

Squad: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag (vice-capt), Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, S Sreesanth, Sudeep Tyagi, Rohit Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Naman Ojha (wk), Piyush Chawla, Abhimanyu Mithun, Manish Pandey, RP Singh, Munaf Patel, Murali Vijay, Vinay Kumar, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Virat Kohli and R Ashwin.

[ret]

Btw, usually we get to see upsets in WCs w/ one (or even two) of the top teams getting knocked out earlier than it (/they) should like WI in 2007, Aus in 2009 so who (possibly) would it (/they) be in 2010?

Group A - Pakistan (A1), Bangladesh (A2) and Australia
Group B - Sri Lanka (B1), New Zealand (B2) and Zimbabwe
Group C - South Africa(C1), India (C2) and Qualifier 1 (Afghanistan)
Group D - West Indies (D1), England (D2) and Qualifier 2 (Ireland)

Looking at the groups:

- BD could send either Aus or Pak crashing early on. BD have beaten some of the top teams in the WCs in the past. They take on Pak in the opening game of that group. Pak losing would become the first case of a defending champion being knocked out in the first round
- Afghanistan is a relatively new team but it's playing Ind in the opening group of that game. Ind has the tendency to adapt its game to the opposition's and be over confident at times
- Ireland could have a good day against either WI or Eng
- SL and NZ bash minnows well so I don't see them getting in to that much problem as much as some of the other teams

[AaronK]

Afghanistan for the world cup for me

[Sir Alex]

Originally Posted by AaronK

Afghanistan for the world cup for me

Yes, I really want them to do something special even if it is at the cost of India.

[morgieb]

My hope is that we make it this time. Pakistan & Bangladesh are hardly predictable sides, but FFS, Ireland can beat Bangladesh and Pakistan were woeful last time we played them.

[ret]

You never know! A couple of bad shots, 1 direct hit and 1 good ball going for the underdog can start making things happen for them, esp when there isn't too much time to get back in to the groove

[asty80]

I suspect India might fare better this time. The pitches in WI are not that bouncy and the team has great potential. Players like Yuvi, Gambhir have been out a bit so the IPL might serve as a nice apetizer for them to find their form rather than burn them out.

[Faisal1985]

Looking forward to good competitive cricket.....regardless of who wins.

Pakistan no where close to being the favorites.....as usual...

India in brilliant batting/bowling form and certainly the strongest contender for the title this time around....


For those who are saying ....."whatever!" or "who cares"........i would hope the title remains in the subcontinent in that case.....

[silentstriker]

I think most people who don't care (like myself) still hope that sides like Afghanistan do well. I want Ireland to eventually get Test status, so I'll be rooting for Ireland, if I can be bothered to check the scorecard from time to time.

[shikha]

thats good t20 world cup is coming it will be rocking year 2010

[ret]

Looking at Ind's probables list, it's sad to see Irfan not on the list of 30. I know he got injured but if he will be playing in IPL then he could have been on that list too. He is a big match player and has been MoM in games like the Perth test, 07T20WC final (if i recall correctly)

From the probable's list my pre-IPL squad would be something like the one below:

- Sehwag
- Gambhir
- Panday
- Yuvi
- Dhoni
- Raina
- Jadeja
- Bhajji
- Zak
- PK
- Nehra

Reserves: Karthik, YP, Mishy and a quick bowler

[vcs]

I'm not sure we need a T20 WC virtually every year.. since I find it hard to care too much about the format, I'll join those who will be cheering for the Associate nations who could use this tournament as a springboard to grab attention in their countries.

[The_roc]

I just hope that the pitches are better prepared than those that are currently being used for the Zimbab series.

[KiWiNiNjA]

That time of year again, I see.

[Pratters]

I cared initially for T20 cricket but I really don't give a rat's ass about it now. Don't care about this tournament. Test cricket and FC cricket is where the soul of cricket lies.