ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 will commence tomorrow and will witness the opening match between the host USA and neighboring country Canada. Both teams will play their first ICC event and are excited too. Earlier both teams have played with each other but playing in the ICC tournament will be more precious.
Journey till now: USA and Canada
USA is the co-host with West Indies and they will feature in their first-ever ICC tournament and practice is in full swing. Just a few days ago they had a T20i series with Bangladesh where they clinched the series by 2-1 and defeated them, for the first time they won the series against any full-member team. So, they have plenty of confidence and will practice more to kickstart their tournament. Former Kiwi player Corey Anderson will be featuring for the USA and will play ICC tournament after a long time which will be the highlight of the game.
Canada has not played much cricket but recently played plenty of cricket and they will also aim to kickstart their tournament with a bang. Countries like the USA, and Canada will also get a chance to prove themselves that they also have potential and will shape their teams for long years in T20 Cricket. Canada has played against Nepal and had a decent performance against them.
Stats:
- Taylor and Patel have six 50-plus stands in the 12 T20I innings in which they have opened together for the USA. Their partnership run rate is 9.65.
- Since the last T20 World Cup in 2022, only two batters have scored 700 or more runs at a 50-plus average and a 150-plus strike rate: India’s Suryakumar Yadav and Canada’s Aaron Johnson.
- Across all T20s, Johnson has taken Netravalkar for 50 runs in 30 balls while getting out only once.
- Aaron Jones has smashed Heyliger for 23 runs in 11 balls for one dismissal. But Saad has had the wood over him: two dismissals in 23 balls for just 15 runs.
- Saad is the only bowler to have registered four maidens in a T20I, a feat he achieved against Panama in 2021 when he finished with figures of 4-4-0-2.
- So far, only four players have represented two different teams at the T20 World Cup: Roelof van der Merwe (South Africa and Netherlands), Dirk Nannes (Netherlands and Australia), David Wiese (South Africa and Namibia) and Mark Chapman (Hong Kong and New Zealand).
Head to Head:
USA 5 – 2 Canada
Match-ups:
Convalescing from a supposed viral infection, USA captain Monank Patel chose against traveling with the team for the nets on the eve of the match. The USA batting mainstay, however, is expected to be fit in time for the opening encounter.
Probable XI: Monank Patel (c & wk), Aaron Jones, Steven Taylor, Nitish Kumar, Corey Anderson, Jasdeep Singh, Ali Khan, Saurabh Netravalkar, Harmeet Singh, Andries Gous, Nostush Kenjige/Shadley Van Schalkwyk.
Canada number 3, Rayyan Pathan, retired hurt after just playing a solitary delivery against Nepal. There has been no news from the Canada camp regarding his availability for the curtain raiser. The unavailability of the experienced Pathan will mean added responsibility for Canada’s opening pair and batting mainstays Aaron Johnson and Navneet Dhaliwal.
Probable XI: Navneet Dhaliwal, Aaron Johnson, Pargat Singh, Shreyas Movva (wk), Ravinderpal Singh, Nicholas Kirton, Saad Bin Zafar (c), Kaleem Sana, Nikhil Dutta, Dillon Heyliger, Jeremy Gordon.
Pitch Report:
The average batting score in 12 MLC games played at the venue last year was 167, while teams batting first have won 8 out of 12 games. The pitch generally has enough for the batsmen to be expressive in their stroke play. The new ball does tend to swerve around a bit under lights as well. Approaching its second season, the average first innings scores are expected to spike as the surface hardens up. The rain in the lead-up to the games shouldn’t play a role in determining the nature of the wicket as subsequent hot temperatures are poised to suck up any prevalent moisture.