The stage is set as the T20 World Cup Super 12 stage begins on October 22, 2022 with Australia and New Zealand facing each other at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). It promises to be an exciting tournament with top-quality players.
Eight teams qualified for this year’s T20 World Cup due to higher rankings. India, South Africa, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, England, Pakistan, and Australia made it directly.
After the qualifying rounds starting from October 16, 2022, four teams will qualify for the Super 12 stage. Group 1 consists of Australia, New Zealand, England, winners of Group A, and runners-up of Group B from qualifying rounds.
Group 2 comprises India, Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh, the winner of Group B, and runners of Group A. All the teams will play 5 matches each with 2 top teams will qualify for the semi-finals of the prestigious tournament.
Here we look at the 4 teams that can make it into the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2022.
#1 Australia
Australia is one of the favorites for this year’s prestigious tournament. Under the captaincy of Aaron Finch, they defeated New Zealand in 2021 to become champions in the shortest format.
The Kangaroos will be playing at the home crowd which will motivate them to do well and defend their title. They have a strong batting unit with the likes of David Warner, Aaron Finch, Steve Smith, Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, and Glenn Maxwell. Tim David has been included in this tournament due to his power hitting.
Matthew Wade has been in great form and would be looking to continue his impressive form. Josh Inglis will be another batting option that Australia could choose from.
Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Kane Richardson, and Mitchell Marsh comprise pace bowlers while Adam Zampa and Ashton Agar comprise spinners. Right before the T20 World Cup, Australia had a nice outing whitewashing West Indies 2-0, and lost the 3-match series against England by 0-2 with the third match being whitewashed.
The Australian unit looks like a balanced one with decent power-hitters in the middle order, aggressive openers, and decent all-rounders. If the conditions help the pacers, Hazlewood, Starc, and Cummins would be a handful.
There are no significant changes from the 2021 edition of the T20 World Cup played in UAE. Nathan Ellis, Daniel Sams, and Mitchell Swepson were included. Australia would be looking for their star players to perform and help them to qualify for the semi-finals of the prestigious tournament.
#2 England
From Group 1, England look like another solid favourite for the semi-finals stage. They will be missing key players in the form of Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy.
They have a good quality batting line-up with Jos Buttler and Alex Hales that can destroy any bowling lineup on its day. Dawid Malan, Phil Salt, and Liam Livingstone comprise of middle order along with Moeen Ali, Harry Brooks can create a huge impact on opposition bowlers.
The bowling looks varied with Reece Topley and David Willey as two left-arm pacers. Mark Wood can trouble the batters with express pace and bounce. Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, and Sam Curran can do well if conditions help seamers.
They have two quality spinners in the form of Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali. Both spinners will have an advantage with long boundaries and can trouble opposition batters.
If their batting unit clicks together, their bowling can contain the opposition with their varied bowling. Jos Buttler will captain England for the first time in a prestigious tournament like World Cup. In the 2021 T20 World Cup, England reached the semi-finals as their bowling struggled during death overs.
They would be high on confidence before the T20 World Cup as they defeated Pakistan at their home den 4-3 and then won 2-0 in Australia. Liam Dawson, Richard Gleeson, and Tymal Mills are the reserve players.
#3 India
The Indian Cricket Team will be looking to make amends after a disappointing T20 World Cup 2021 played in UAE. Rohit Sharma has the mantle of leading the Indian team for this year’s prestigious tournament.
It is going to be a massive challenge for Rohit Sharma and Co. They have an explosive batting unit with Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, and Axar Patel.
The pace bowling unit comprises Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, and Harshal Patel. Mohammed Shami has been named as the replacement for Jasprit Bumrah. Indian bowling has been struggling s the opposition team chased down big targets.
The spin bowling options comprise Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, and Deepak Hooda. Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, and Ravi Bishnoi have been named as reserves for this tournament.
They could reach the top stage of their batting post decent totals and then their bowling can restrict the opponents. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh would be looking to perform well in the first six overs and can contain explosive batters at the end allowing Team India a chance of winning the matches.
There have been a lot of changes in the Indian squad since the last T20 World tournament. Varun Chakravarthy, Rahul Chahar, Ishan Kishan. Virat Kohli was the captain and had a disappointing outing losing in the first round.
#4 South Africa
The South African Cricket Team will be high on confidence with their pace bowling attack. They can create trouble as they have Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Wayne Parnell, and Lungi Ngidi that can pick early wickets.
The batting order looks strong with the likes of de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Rilee Rossouw, Tristian Stubbs, Aiden Markram, and David Miller that can change the course of the game with their power-hitting.
Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj are the two spinners included in this tournament. There is one change as Dwaine Pretorius has been ruled out due to an injury. Marco Jansen has been named as a replacement.
The reserves include Fortuin, Andile Phehlukawyo, and Lizaad Williams. They would be missing Rassie Van der Dussen who performed well in last year’s T20 World Cup.
South Africa has a decent chance of reaching the semi-finals with top-quality bowling and attacking batters to play on good batting pitches. The Proteas showed promise earning the same number of points but due to less net run rate, they could not reach the top stage during last year’s edition.
Temba Bavuma will be leading the side again. They need their captain to lead with the bat and aggressive captaincy from the front.
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