T20 has reshaped cricket in a dramatic way. It has obviously both benefits and drawbacks. Biggest disadvantage of T20 is traditional cricket is losing his audience and his charm. But on the other hand, it has also helped cricket in growing rigorously. T20 has lot of excitement, charm, fun and everything which now a days audience wants. It has become more popular than Test or ODI's. So just couple of days left in the start of year's biggest event in Sri Lanka. Twelve top sides of the planet will be in action for becoming the champion of World T20.
Lets first talk about minnows of the event. May be its wrong to call any team "Minnow" in T20, but one can say these are less rated teams in the event. Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan are also in the event along with 9 test playing nations. Afghanistan is the nation which is rising tremendously in cricketing world, specially in T20. There inclusion in another event shows their hard work. Similarly Ireland, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh may have very less chance of winning the tournament but for sure they are capable of throwing any of the team out of tournament. well we have to wait and see how many upsets we can see in this world cup.
Talking about the favorites no doubt Asian trio (Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka) have every chance of winning the cup. They are familiar with the conditions,weather and most importantly recently these teams have played some cricket in Sri Lanka. Pakistan's bowling attack and India's batting attack can be termed as the most powerful attacks of the tournament. But both of the teams lack in other department(Pakistan in batting & India in bowling). any of the team finding good balance will have better chance of winning.
Some cricket pundits are calling West Indies as favorites, and why not? I mean any team with the likes of Gayle, Pollard, Bravo, Narine can be termed as favorite. they are a very goo T20 side. This is a good chance for West Indies to get their position back in world of cricket. Many of the eyes will be on Caribbean players how they perform for their team.
Ok with the favorites, but Australia, England and South Africa are also very good sides and can reach the top anywhere. England will be defending its title but I will not call them favorites in these conditions. They need something extra to retain their title. Similar is the case with Australia.We have seen them struggling a long way against Pakistan in T20, although they get a very handsome victory in the last match but not favorites for me.
*Tournament is starting on September 18.
