T20 World Cup Group Stage Preview

The 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup begins this Sunday with two Group Stage fixtures, with Sri Lanka locking horns with Namibia in Victoria to commence the eighth edition of the tournament.

With 12 Group Stage fixtures to hurdle through before the initiation of the Super 12s phase, we preview two of the preliminary fixtures below to wet the whistle ahead of this year’s competition down under.

Sri Lanka v Namibia

Sri Lanka will arrive at this tournament full of confidence after triumphing over Pakistan in last month’s Asia Cup final. The Lions will however have to overcome three Group Stage matches before taking their place in next week’s Super 12s phase, and they are heavily fancied here at 1/12 to secure victory against Namibia in the tournament’s curtain raiser.

The 2014 winners were also victorious in their first warmup fixture against Zimbabwe, with opener Kusal Mendis smashing 54 off 29 deliveries and Asia Cup player of the series Wanindu Hasaranga, arguably one of the finest T20 players on the planet right now, continuing his fine form with a scintillating 37 of 14 balls.

Whether or not this Sri Lanka side can acclimatise to the Australian pitches, with their conquest in the Asia Cup on the more familiar UAE surfaces, is questionable, and their tournament odds of 18/1 certainly reflect this. Nevertheless, they should have too much quality to fend off any challenge from Namibia, who are considered firm underdogs for this matchup at 7/1.

Namibia will be competing in their second ever T20 World Cup after admirably reaching the Super 12s phase last year, successfully chasing totals against the Netherlands and Ireland to progress from the Group Stage. Another Super 12s finish will realistically be the target again this tournament after finishing fifth in Group 2 – a group which included India, New Zealand and Pakistan.

They were likewise victorious in their only World Cup warmup game against Ireland on Tuesday, with captain Gerhard Erasmus hitting a somewhat slow 34 off 35 balls to anchor his side to 138 after 20 overs. Fast bowler Ben Shikongo took home brilliant figures of 3-11 from just two overs to help the Namibians win by 11 runs.

West Indies v Scotland

This is an ambiguous time for the West Indies T20 side, who are most successful team in the competition’s history with two triumphs in 2012 and 2016. The bizarre exclusion of destructive batsman Shimron Hetmyer for missing his flight only adds to the mood of apprehension, and their pre-tournament odds of 16/1 certainly echoes the sentiment of unease within the squad.

Despite losing their last three T20 series, the Windies still possess a forceful white-ball side that tend to flourish in big tournaments, although they finished a disappointing fifth in their Super 12 group last year. They swept aside the UAE in their only tournament warm-up fixture on Monday, with Brandon King smashing 64 off 45 balls and captain Nicholas Pooran hitting 46 off 31.

They are expected to make light work of Scotland on Monday and can be backed at 1/7 to make a winning start to their Group Stage campaign against Scotland on Monday – the first time they’ve appeared in the Group Stage phase since its reformatting in 2014.

Scotland will be making their third successive T20 World Cup appearance after failing to qualify for the previous three, commendably winning all three of their Group Stage games before finishing last in their Super 12s group. They are winless in all three of their previous meetings with the West Indies, and can be backed at 9/2 for a shock upset against the two-time winners.

They were likewise victorious in their warmup game against the Netherlands on Monday, with captain Richie Berrington top scoring with 41 from 29 deliveries and pace bowler Brad Wheal picking up 2-24 from his four overs.

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