Karthik Raman & Jatin Verma bring you the prospects of New Zealand & England
The young punch
England
Current ranking: fifth
Predicted Finish: Super 10
Winners of 2010 edition where they beat Australia to be the WorldT20 champions and now six years later, with Eoin Morgan leading the Three lions in the WT20 tournament, England will be looking to reciprocate the same. England is pooled in Group 1 with Sri lanka, South Africa and West Indies, plus a qualifier from the first round.
The stats will show you a different England side with a winning percentage of just 44% but on the pitch, this side has names which can create havoc in the opponent’s team.
In the batting discipline, they have Morgan, wicket-keeper batsman Jos Buttler, Alex Hales and their new star of the team — Ben Stokes, who has been in fantastic form throughout last year for the team. Alex Hales is one of the four batsmen to score more than 1000+ runs in the shortest format of the game since 2012. Having said all this, there is a major problem in the team and that is the exclusion of destructive batsman Kevin Pietersen who was in complete destruction mode in the recently concluded Big Bash league for Melbourne Stars team. Without KP, there is a huge void left in their middle-order.
The team will be expecting a lot from the young player to give them the perfect start top of the order. In bowling department, the Brits will rely on quicks of Chris Jordan, David Willey, and liam Plunkett. However in their tune up to the WorldT20 tournament, they lost two matches T20 series to South Africa and are somewhat down on their morale.
Squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler (wk), liam Dawson, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, James Vince, David Willey.
Dark horses
New Zealand
Current ranking: Fourth
Predicted Finish: Super 10
New Zealand never enter a tournament as a clear favourite but most often than not the Black Caps surpass their expectations level. That is one of the reasons why New Zealand are often regarded as the dark horses.
Not to mention in last year’s 50-over World Cup, New Zealand weren’t favoured to shine as much as Australia was despite being a co-host. But, the then Brendon McCullum side defied all the odds to reach the final where they were outplayed by a formidable Australian team.
The World No 4 side in the shortest format has a perfect blend between batting and bowling. With big hitters such as Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson and Corey Anderson, Black Caps also have good bowlers Tim Southee, Mitchell McClenaghan and the ever reliable Nathan McCullum.
However, the biggest problem for the side would be on filling the void left by their captain fantastic Brendon McCullum. Baz has always been New Zealand’s go-to man whenever the team has been in a spot of bother and the wicket-keeper cum batsman has often delivered the goods. But now the country has to live without the departed legend.
The like of Williamson has to step up to fill the void and his recent showing has been promising. Williamson is New Zealand’s third highest scorer in the shortest format with 844 runs at an average of 36.69 and a decent strike rate of 127.68.
Guptill, who is the form of his life, is the country’s all time top scorer in this format with 1666 runs at a brisk average of 34.7 and a respectable strike rate of 129.64.
Taylor is another player who is unstoppable if he gets going. He has 1165 runs at a brisk strike rate of 120.6. However consistency is the main issue for him as Taylor averages just 24.27.
In bowling, the right arm off- break bowler Nathan McCullum has the most number of wickets for Black Caps with 55. He is followed by Southee with 46 and McClenaghan with 26. If these bowlers continue to shine, then New Zealand will have a real chance in the sub continent wickets.
After starting against favourites and host India on March 15, New Zealand next play Australia on 18th, followed by Pakistan on 22nd and round off their Super-10 matches against a qualifier on Martch 26. Black Caps need to win atleast three of these four to qualify for the semifinal, which looks like a tough ask.
Squad: Kane Williamson (capt), Ross Taylor (vice-capt), Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Adam Milne, Mitchell McClenaghan, Colin Munro, Nathan McCullum, Henry Nicholls, luke Ronchi (wk), Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee.