SETTING THE SCENE: All the key stats ahead of the 2021 T20 Men’s Cricket World Cup
The seventh ICC Men’s T20 World Cup gets underway on Sunday and will feature 16 teams fighting it out to be crowned champions in Oman and the UAE.
The West Indies come into the tournament as the holders after their success in India in 2016, a second T20 World Cup victory, after their first in 2012, which made the Windies the most successful team in the tournament’s short history.
West Indies leg-spinner Samuel Badree was present for both of those wins, and from 2012-2016 he took 25 wickets in just 15 games for the lowest World Cup bowling average of 13.58.
However, Pakistani leg-spinner Shahid Afridi is the man to look to for most wickets taken at the T20 World Cup, as he captured 39 wickets in 34 matches between 2007 and 2016.
Sri Lanka also have an excellent past record in T20 World Cups having reached the final in 2009 and 2012, before victory in 2014 over rivals India.
They have won 22 of their 35 World Cup matches, the most by any team and world-class all-rounder Tillakaratne Dilshan, who was present for all those 35 matches, holds the record for most World Cup appearances.
Much of their success was built on a formidable batting order, which included Mahela Jayawardene at number three, who still holds the record for most runs scored with 1016, nearly a hundred clear of his nearest pursuer Chris Gayle. However, with the veteran West Indies batsman still going strong, and set to line up at this tournament, that record may be under threat.
Jayawardene scored a 65 when helping Sri Lanka to the highest total in T20 World Cup history when The Lions recorded 260/6 against Kenya in 2007.
However, Sri Lanka are also a potent force with the ball, as Zimbabwe discovered in 2012, when Ajantha Mendis the “mystery spinner” ripped through the African’s order when taking 6 wickets for only 8 runs in the most destructive four-over spell in T20 World Cup history.
The Netherlands also felt the wrath of the Sri Lankan attack, when bowled out for just 39 runs in 2014, the lowest ever T20 World Cup total.
Sri Lanka have slipped to 10th in the rankings since then and will have to navigate the initial group stage if they are to face the better teams in this year’s Super 12.
Rivals India, ranked second in the world, have no such worries and come into the tournament as favourites.
Their captain, Virat Kohli’s batting average of 86.33 is by far the highest in the history of the competition. He has scored a remarkable 777 runs from just 16 innings and will be looking to add to that total in the UAE and Oman.
Kohli’s run total is more that Brendon McCullum could manage in 25 T20 World Cup innings, but the New Zealander could be explosive from the crease on his day as he proved when hitting a record 123 against Bangladesh in 2012.
Hopefully this year’s T20 World Cup will see some of those records surpassed.
