Cricket News: T20 World Cup - Preparations in full swing

The Cricket board of the respective countries is taking decisions and arrange different strategies to develop the best squad for the tournament. Few of these teams are performing well, while few are a little deprived of playing more T20I games.

West Indies preparation

The Caribbeans recently defeated Bangladesh in the shortest format of the game, giving them much-needed confidence, and the captain of the team, Nicholas Pooran, is performing brilliantly along with Kyle Mayers and Powell. The batting firepower of West Indies is as good as in previous years, if not better. 

Odean Smith has given the team balance they lacked before, as he's a perfect all-rounder who can bowl a proper spell for the team if the situation demands. 

Bangladesh preparation

On the other hand, Bangladesh has also improved, but there are areas where work should still be done to stand a chance of winning the world cup. The team has a strong bowling line-up, but they still need to work on their performance with the bat. Everyone till the lower batting order has caliber but is not consistent in every match.

Sri Lanka preparation

The nation that formerly ruled the cricket world was in bad shape for many years. After a strong performance at the ICC T20 World Cup in 2021 and with a few players participating in the IPL, Sri Lanka's team is poised to make waves at the Australian event.

After negotiating early challenges in the First Round, Sri Lanka overcame Bangladesh and the West Indies in the UAE. They also engaged South Africa in a suspenseful championship encounter in Sharjah.

Pakistan preparation

Pakistan, unfortunately, has only had one T20I match this year, which they lost. The team didn't get to experiment with the line-up due to the previously mentioned reason. But they are still training to their best as the PCB has prepared a pitch similar to Australia in Lahore for the team's practice.

As the team didn't have many t20 matches, Pakistan has planned to play tri-series matches against New Zealand and Bangladesh to round off their preparations for the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup this year. Before their T20 World Cup opener against India at the MCG, Babar Azam's team will travel to New Zealand at the beginning of October for a minimum of four T20 International matches.

New Zealand preparation

New Zealand, too didn't play a single t20 match this year. Still, the players have played enough club cricket, which would make the work easier for the Kiwis, and even the players are performing well in the ODI series from where they can confirm the squad accordingly.

As they are playing tri-series, it will ensure that the Kiwis come up with a great squad like in preceding years. They have a fantastic bowling line-up and also a balanced batting order.

New teams with Strong potential

Cricket is becoming more popular and eventually spreading in more countries. There have been many new teams performing well, but let's look at two such teams who will make sure to leave a mark on this year's world cup with their performances.

UAE

UAE is the best underdog international team as they won the world t20 qualifier final and have never looked back since then. They are ensuring to win all their matches and look forward to competing against well-known cricket teams worldwide.

Ireland

Ireland is improving daily and thrashing every team in their league. They are also neck to neck with known teams like New Zealand and West Indies. The team is rising very quickly, and it won't be a surprise if they qualify for the world cup's first (second) round.