ICC T20 Cricket World Cup 2021 - India And Pakistan Starts As Favorites

Hello Cricket Lovers,

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I am sure you all enjoyed the IPL matches with Chennai Super Kings lifting the trophy for the Fourth time.

With IPL concluded and ICC T20 World Cup already started with preliminary matches and practice matches going on in UAE and Oman as those 2 are joint hosts for this year's World CUp.

Having seen the performance of the teams and also the way the pitches behaved during the IPL, we can say that, the teams which have slow bowlers like spinners and medium paces who can change the take out the pace of the ball with slow cutters, knuckle balls have been successful in winning the matches for their respective teams.

With those factors in mind and also based on the teams composition of the teams playing in T20 World Cup, I feel India and Pakistan will start as favorites to win the trophy this year.

Here I go with the details about my predictions.

India:

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With the amount of experience of playing on UAE pitches at the scheduled venues for T20 World Cup as part of their IPL matches, India starts as the favorite and here is why I say so.

As we saw in the IPL matches, the pitches at Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai are on slower side assisting spin bowlers more and to great extent, the fast bowlers who can vary their pace with slow cutters and even slow bouncers.

And when we say spin bowling, who else is having a better unit than India?

As we witnessed in the IPL, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and even Rahul Chahar performed well and RCB's Yuzvendra Chahal was also superb, but unfortunately, he misses out from the team selected.

Indian pacers who are selected also had good outings with players like Jasprit Bumrah and Shardul Thakur were not only among the wickets, but were also economical too. With Bhuvneshwar Kumar also finding some form at the end of the tournament, it will be these 3 who will be in the playing XI is what I think.

As for as India's batting is concerned, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma will be the most likely openers with captain Kohli preferring to bat at number 3.

I think there will be a dilemma to play which wicket keeper among Ishan Kishan and Rishabh Pant, but it may be Ishan Kishan based on the current form both with bat and gloves who may get nod ahead of regular keeper Pant.

The middle order will have Surya Kumar Yadav with allrounders to follow in Hardik Pandya, Rvindra Jadeja

So, the possible team will be:

1. KL Rahul.
2. Rohit Sharma.
3. Virat Kohli.
4. Ishan Kishan.
5. Surya Kumar Yadav.
6. Hardik Pandya.
7. Ravindra Jadeja.
8. Ravichandran Ashwin/Axar Patel.
9. Shardul Thakur.
10. Jasprit Bumrah and
11. Varun Chakravarthy.

This team looks more balanced with 6 bowling options including few overs from Hardik Pandya and includes enough fire power in batting.

Pakistan:

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Although Pakistan players not part of IPL, but they know the pitch conditions better than anybody else as they play most of their International matches in UAE as it's like their Second home since the teams have refused to play in Pakistan citing security reasons.

Pakistan has a good side with their spin department more or less similar to India's with Shadab Khan and Imad Wassim being their premier spinners and with old horses Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik in the squad too, spin department looks good.

Fast bowling has been Pakistan's main strength and they have players like Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Wasim to compete with and the batting has been good Fakhar Zaman being the explosive batsman and a opener and him will be supported by guys like Mohammed Hafeez, captain Babar Azam, wicket keeper Mohammad Rizwan and allrounders like Shoaib Malik, Imad Wassim and Mohammad Wasim.

On their day, Pakistan can take down any team and the history of matches between India and Pakistan says that, India has always won except for couple of occasions I think and it will be an interesting match for the spectators from both the countries.

Other Countries:

Among the other countries, England and New Zealand looks better than Australia, West Indies, South Africa and even Afghanistan who have the spin masters like Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman in their ranks, but, they haven't lived up t their expectations.

England will be without the services of their premier players like Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Sam Curran, but they still have a balanced side with the likes of Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone giving support in spin department and they have World class fast bowlers in Chris Woakes, Mark Wood and Chris Jordan with allrounders like Tom Curran and Tymall Mills.

Their batting mainstays will be Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy as openers with middle order having Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan and captain Eoin Morgan although Morgan hasn't been in good form off late.

As for as New Zealand is concerned, they have good side with enough of bowling and batting with so many allrounders in their team.

If they play to their potential, they can be a threat to any.

With Ish Sodhi, Mitchell Santner as their main spinners, they have someone like Lockie Ferguson, Tim Southee and almost all their batters can bowl.

Their batting will be mainly by Devon Conway, Martin Guptil with captain Kane Williamson, Tim Seifert playing in middle order with flurry of allrounders in Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, James Neesham and even Kyle Jamieson.

Let's hope they repeat their 50 overs World Cup winning form here.

I better come back with another blog to cover for the other favorites as this blog is getting longer and longer.

The overall champions still looks like Indians with their spin bowling being more advantageous and I am not saying this because I am an Indian too, I am saying this based on their recent form and the beating taken by teams like Australia, England and New Zealand in Bangladesh on spin friendly wickets.

Hope they all prove me wrong to make it more even contest for all :)

Have a good Tuesday guys :)

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