T20 world cup round the corner

Twenty 20 cricket which set the cricketing world on fire is back !! Yes, its 2 years since we, Indians, lifted the world cup.. The second edition of the world cup will be held in England beginning from the 5th of June..

The inaugural ICC World Twenty20 2007 event proved to be one of the most exciting cricket events of all time, sparking huge interest in the format across the globe. India and Pakistan played out a dramatic final, which was only decided in the last over as India triumphed by five runs. It proved to be an even better game than the one between the same sides days earlier in Durban which had been settled by the first ever bowl out after a dramatic tie.

The 2nd edition can only get bigger and brighter..

Trentbridge, Lord's and The Oval are the 3 venues that will host all the games..

India find themselves placed in group A along with Bangladesh and Ireland.. (the 2 main teams who gave a big upset in ODI WC 2007, turning a potential IND vs PAK match into BAN vs IRL)..

GROUP A – INDIA, BANGLADESH, IRELAND
GROUP B – PAKISTAN, ENGLAND, NETHERLAND
GROUP C – AUSTRALIA, SRILANKA, WEST INDIES
GROUP D – SOUTH AFRICA, NEAZELAND, SCOT LAND

The squads have been announced by many teams... The important and the impact players have been highlighted...

SA Squad: Graeme Smith (capt), Johan Botha (vice-capt), Yusuf Abdulla, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Justin Ontong, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Roelof van der Merwe.

PAK Squad: Younis Khan (capt), Salman Butt, Ahmed Shehzad, Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal (wk), Fawad Alam, Shoaib Akhtar, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamer, Yasir Arafat, Saeed Ajmal, Shahzaib Hasan

SL Squad: Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Chamara Silva, Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thilan Thushara, Lasith Malinga, Isuru Udana, Farveez Maharoof, Jehan Mubarak, Indika de Saram.

BAN Squad: Mohammad Ashraful (capt), Mashrafe Mortaza, Tamim Iqbal, Junaid Siddique, Raqibul Hasan, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Naeem Islam, Abdur Razzak, Shahadat Hossain, Syed Rasel, Mahmudullah, Rubel Hossain, Shamsur Rahman, Mithun Ali.

IND Squad: MS Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha, Irfan Pathan.

ENG Squad :P Collingwood (capt), J Anderson, R Bopara ,S Broad ,A Flintoff ,J Foster ,R Key ,D Mascarenhas,E Morgan ,G Napier ,K Pietersen ,O Shah ,R Sidebottom ,G Swann ,L Wright..

NZ Squad: Daniel Vettori (capt), Brendon McCullum, Ian Butler, Ross Taylor, Jesse Ryder, Brendon Diamanti, Neil Broom, James Franklin, Nathan McCullum, Martin Guptill, Peter McGlashan, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Ian O' Brien, Scott Styris..

All India matches will start at 2230 IST and are based in Trentbridge..

June 6, Saturday - India vs Bangladesh , Trentbridge.. 1800 - 2100 hrs BST
June 10, Wednesday - India vs Ireland ,Trent Bridge.. 1730 - 2030 hrs BST
IST= BST + 4.30 hrs...

Super 8s
Group E : A1, B2, C1, D2
Group F: A2, B1, C2, D1
Super 8s run from the 11th to the 16th of june..

18 THURS E1 v F2 Trent Bridge, England

19 FRI F1 v E2 Oval, England

21 SUN Final Lord's, England..

1500 - 1800 hrs

Ishanth and Jayawardene posing with the T20 trophy in colombo

Could we have gone in for Robin Uthappa instead of Ishanth Sharma ? Piyush Chawla ? The team is good on papers..


Viru, Gauti, Raina, Yuvi, MSD , Irfan, Yusuf, Bhajji , Zak, Pk, RP could well be the playing 11 for India...