T20 World Cup: Australia chase history, Pakistan face USA challenge

Barbados: With the World Test Championship mace and the 50-over World Cup trophy already in its bag, Australia will look to hit the ground running in its quest to become the first team to simultaneously hold all three world titles when it takes on Oman in its T20 World Cup opener.

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To accomplish the feat, the former champion will rely on its wealth of experience, with several of Australia’s greatest modern-era players, preparing for their final farewell in international colours.

The T20 trophy evaded Australia for the longest time but the maiden title in 2021 changed that. However, a year later, it failed to progress from the league stage on home soil.

Australia has no dearth of match-winners in its squad, starting from newly-appointed skipper Mitchell Marsh. The all-rounder will be a key factor batting at No.3. Travis Head has been in red-hot form and was the side’s star performer in the WTC final and ODI World Cup final.

Australia might experiment in the group stage to find its best XI. Leg-spinner Adam Zampa will play a crucial role while left-arm spinner Ashton Agar is also expected to be in the mix.

The ever-reliable trio of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood will run the pace unit.

Oman lost its opening game against Namibia. While it did a commendable job with the ball by taking the match into the Super Over, the batters will have to be more responsible if the side wants to pull off an upset win over the mighty Australians.

Last edition’s runner-up Pakistan will take on co-host USA in the day’s other match. While on paper, the Babar Azam-led side looks the outright favourite to win the clash, Pakistan’s recent form suggests that it might not be a cake walk.

Pakistan lost a T20 International in Ireland and then suffered a 0-2 defeat in England this week, not the ideal result before a global event. Before that, it drew 2-2 at home with a New Zealand side that was missing many of its World Cup squad members.

The run-up to the marquee event has been chaotic to say the least with change in captaincy, shuffling of the top-order and players coming out of retirement.

Babar was reinstated as skipper after Shaheen Afridi was handed the T20 captaincy for a short time. The pacer was offered vice-captaincy later but he refused to take it.

Babar and Mohammad Rizwan are Pakistan’s most consistent T20 performers but their strike rate has been a cause of concern as the duo has struggled to accelerate.

But if Pakistan is known to excel in something, it is their unpredictability. It can surprise its opponents or implode any time.

It will bank heavily on its fiery pace department, which features Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, and Mohammad Amir, who has come out of retirement. The USA will be high on confidence after its seven-wicket win in the tournament opener against Canada.

The third match of the day features Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Uganda. PNG put up a strong show against the West Indies as the two-time champion was put under extreme pressure by the PNG bowlers. Agencies

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