T20 World Cup 2022: Players to watch from every team
There’s an Aussie born player captaining Netherlands, an Indian Premier League sensation, a 36-year-old who can do it all and more. These are the players to watch.
Australia’s quest to retain the T20 World Cup on home soil begins with a rematch of last year’s final against New Zealand.
The Super 12 is locked in after a stunning final day of the tournament’s first stage that saw Ireland upset the West Indies and Zimbabwe advance after defeating Scotland.
While Aussie cricket fans have been glued to the winter footy codes, cricketers have been busy plying their trade in lucrative T20 franchise leagues across the globe, headlined by the Indian Premier League.
So it wouldn’t surprise if names like Tim David, Suryakumar Yadav and Wanindu Hasaranga aren’t too familiar to some.
Which players on the rise are ready to take the tournament by storm, and who has already shone in the first stage of the World Cup?
We outline the players to keep on your radar across the tournament.
GROUP 1
AUSTRALIA
Tim David
The Singapore slogger is Australia’s World Cup wildcard, but while he is lesser-known to most Aussie cricket followers, David has been producing incredible results against the best in the world. Picked up for $1.53 million in this year’s IPL after striking at an absurd 190 strike rate in a breakout Pakistan Super League campaign, he hit a whopping 16 sixes and struck at 216.2 from the 86 balls he faced for the Mumbai Indians. The destructive middle-order batter, who goes hard from ball one, continued his form in the warm-up games, clubbing 40 off 23 against England and 42 from 20 against the West Indies. If Aussies are to go back-to-back, they need David to fire. All-rounder Cam Green, added to the squad after the freak injury to Josh Inglis, is another who can have a serious impact if called on, able to be used up the order with the bat and take wickets with the ball.
AFGHANISTAN
Rahmanullah Gurbaz
Gurbaz finished as the seventh-highest run scorer at this year’s Asia Cup, taking Sri Lanka to the cleaners twice with 84 from 45 deliveries and 40 from 18. He also boasted the second highest strike rate of any of the top-10 run scorers, piling on 152 runs at a lightning 163.44. In a recent Carribean Premier League match for Guyana, Gurbaz cleared the rope six times without hitting a four on his way to 60.
ENGLAND
Sam Curran
Most T20 fans would know of Tom Curran in this format due to his BBL success, but his brother Sam looks to be in for a big tournament if England decides to pick him. Unselected for last year’s T20 World Cup, Curran bowled with precision at the death in the first two warm-up games against Australia, finishing with 3/25 and 2/35. The left-arm seamer, who is also handy with the blade, also claimed seven wickets and conceded more than 30 runs in just one of his six matches in their recent T20 series against Pakistan. Harry Brook had limited success in his BBL stint with the Hobart Hurricanes but smashed 238 runs at a 163 strike rate in that same series, while big-hitting opener Alex Hales is back in the England side for the first time since he failed a recreational drug test in 2019.
IRELAND
Josh Little
Little announced himself on the World Cup stage with 3/24 in Ireland’s opening match of the tournament. The paceman recorded the best-figures in this year’s The Hundred, tearing through the Oval Invicibles to take 5/13. The left-arm quick claimed the equal-second most wickets in the tournament and has a wicked short ball. He was even called up as a net bowler for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL earlier in the year. And for those who aren’t too familiar with Irish cricket, watch out for master blaster Paul Stirling. The opener has played a whopping 312 T20 matches and led Ireland to their first Super 12 spot in 13 years with a formidable 66 from 48 deliveries in their upset win over the West Indies. All-rounder Curtis Campher went bananas with 72 off 32 balls against Scotland and also has a T20 World Cup hat-trick to his name.
NEW ZEALAND
Finn Allen
Allen has made a breakneck start to his T20 international career at the top of the order for New Zealand, striking the ball at 160 from his 17 matches. The highlight came against associate nation Scotland in July where he smoked a 56-ball ton. The 23-year-old will form a promising pairing with Devon Conway at the top of the order for the Kiwis. Explosive middle-order batter Glenn Phillips, who recently strode out to the crease to renowned WWE wrestler John Cena’s theme song, has plenty about him on and off the field.
SRI LANKA
Wanindu Hasaranga
One of the stars of last year’s T20 World Cup, Hasaranga is a lot of fun to watch — and he’s already begun this World Cup with a bang. Not only does he put batters in a spin with the ball, he is capable of hammering balls to the fence at the end of the innings. Hasaranga clubbed 37 off just 14 balls against Zimbabwe in their World Cup trial match, and was the leading wicket-taker in the first stage of the tournament, bagging seven at an average of nine. This included an incredible 3/8 from his four overs against the UAE. The Sri Lankan sensation, who can spin it both ways, claimed the second-most wickets in their winning Asia Cup campaign this year and was the leading wicket taker in last year’s World Cup in the UAE.
GROUP 2
BANGLADESH
Shakib Al Hasan
Not exactly a player on the rise, but Al Hasan sits second in the T20I all-rounder rankings and remains a world class player with bat and ball at the age of 35. In Bangladesh’s T20 tri-series against New Zealand and Pakistan, Al Hasan hit 68 (42 deliveries) and 70 (44) in successive games at No. 4, and his left-arm spin is generally tidy, conceding just 6.73 runs per over across 104 T20Is. He was the fourth-highest wicket taker in last year’s T20 World Cup.
INDIA
Suryakumar Yadav
Yadav has emerged as one of the top batters in world T20 cricket as the latest Indian short-form star off the IPL production line. The middle-order batter smashed Australia around the park with knocks of 69 and 46 at nearly two runs per ball in their recent T20 series in India and took Hong Kong to the cleaners with a blistering 68 from 26 deliveries in the Asia Cup. The 32-year-old scored 303 runs from just eight matches in this year’s IPL for Mumbai and is second in the ICC T20 batting rankings. Meanwhile, a renaissance from 37-year-old Dinesh Karthik is keeping Rishabh Pant out of their T20 side with his destructive finishing at the death.
PAKISTAN
Shadab Khan
Taken as a platinum player in the inaugural BBL Draft by the Hobart Hurricanes, the leg-spinning all-rounder has been shifted up the order at times as a pinch-hitter for Pakistan. Khan smashed a quick-fire 34 off 22 against New Zealand last week at No. 4, with the cameo helping them to a convincing six-week win. With the ball, Khan was the third-highest wicket taker at this year’s Asia Cup with eight wickets, putting Hong Kong in a spin with 4/8, And while all the attention is directed at T20 superstar Babar Azam, his opening partner and No. 1 ranked T20 batter Mohammad Rizwan is another threat at the top of the order.
NETHERLANDS
Scott Edwards
Hailing from Blackburn in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, Edwards has risen from Victorian Premier Cricket for Richmond to captaining the Netherlands at a World Cup. The ‘keeper-batter has played 46 T20Is for the Netherlands, where he currently resides, and has scored an absurd 137 from 39 balls in the European Cricket League – worth a watch on YouTube. Former Renegades and Head batter Tom Cooper is also a part of the Dutch contingent., whil Max O’Dowd was the second-ranked run scorer in the first stage of the tournament, including a gallant 71* to keep his side alive against Sri Lanka.
SOUTH AFRICA
Rilee Rossouw
Rossouw, who signed a shock Kolpak deal with Hampshire in 2017, came out of international retirement mid-year and has thrived. He blasted his maiden T20I ton – off a mere 48 deliveries – against India at the beginning of the month and smoked a 96 in his second game back in the side. The 33-year-old was taken at pick 18 in the BBL Draft by the Sydney Thunder and played with the Renegades in BBL10. Giant 207cm paceman Marco Jannsen, who has been called in as a replacement for bowler Dwaine Pretorius, is another player to watch after claiming 37 wickets in his first seven Tests for the Proteas.
ZIMBABWE
Sikandar Raza
The 36-year-old is getting better with age. Not only has he scored 136 runs — the most in the tournament so far — at a blistering 172 strike rate, he has also proved to be valuable with his off-spin, taking five wickets. Raza finished with the second most runs in the Group B qualifiers before the tournament and hit back-to-back 60-plus totals in a recent series against Bangladesh, who he will meet again in the group stage. Ryan Burl, the man who led Zimbabwe to a historic win over Australia last month with a five-wicket haul – as a part-time leggie – is another one to keep an eye out for.
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