Unlike earlier editions, T20 World Cup is set to witness 20 teams taking part in the competition for the first time. Teams have been divided into four groups of five each who will fight to make it to top two. From each group, two teams will qualify for the Super 8 round ad subsequently will qualify for semis and final that is scheduled on June 29. Meanwhile, a few teams are featuring in the competition for the first time. Let us have a look at them:
1. Canada
Canada have featured in ODI World Cup before but this is the first time that they are playing in the shortest format at the highest level. Canada won the Americas Region Final tournament getting the better of Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Panama last year to qualify for the tournament. They topped the points table after each team played six matches. In fact, Canada and Bermuda both teams tied on nine points but the former team boasted of a net run-rate of 4.073 and hence, qualified for the T20 World Cup.
As for the upcoming edition, Canada will play the opening game of the competition against hosts USA at Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas on June 2 at 6 AM IST (Indian Standard Time). Veteran Saad Bin Zafar will be leading Canada in their first ever T20 World Cup.
Squad: Saad Bin Zafar (c), Aaron Johnson, Ravinderpal Singh, Navneet Dhaliwal, Kaleem Sana, Dilon Heyliger, Jeremy Gordon, Nikhil Dutta, Pargat Singh, Nicholas Kirton, Rayyankhan Pathan, Junaid Siddiqui, Dilpreet Bajwa, Shreyas Movva, Rishiv Joshi.
Reservs: Tajinder Singh, Aaditya Varadharajan, Ammar Khalid, Jatinder Matharu, Parveen Kumar
Canada is part of Group A alongside India, Pakistan, USA and Ireland.
2. United States of America
USA are also featuring in the T20 World Cup for the first time by the virtue of being the hosts. They didn’t have to play any qualifiers to make it to the tournament this time around and automatically qualified. USA are coming into the competition with a solid series win over Bangladesh recently. They won the three-match series 2-1 and will start their campaign against Canada in the first game of the tournament in Dallas. USA have Corey Anderson up their sleeve who played for New Zealand before at the international level. Apart from him, India’s U19 World Cup member Harmeet Singh is also playing for them this year. Indian-origin player Monank Patel has been named the captain of the team.
Squad: Monank Patel (c), Aaron Jones, Andries Gous, Corey Anderson, Ali Khan, Harmeet Singh, Jessy Singh, Milind Kumar, Nisarg Patel, Nitish Kumar, Noshtush Kenjige, Saurabh Nethralvakar, Shadley Van Schalkwyk, Steven Taylor, Shayan Jahangir
Reserves: Gajanand Singh, Juanoy Drysdale, Yasir Mohammad.
USA is part of Group A alongside India, Pakistan, Canada and Ireland.
3. Uganda
Uganda are the newcomers in the T20 World Cup this year having qualified through the Africa Region Qualifier tournament that was played last year. They ended second among seven teams and trumped Zimbabwe to make it to the mega event. In fact, Uganda created a huge upset beating Zimbabwe in the tournament that turned the tables on the latter side in terms of qualification. Namibia also qualified alongside Uganda from the tournament but they have featured in the tournament before. Brian Masaba will become the first ever captain to lead Uganda in the T20 World Cup when he will take the field against Afghanistan on June 3 at the Providence Stadium in Guyana.
Squad: Brian Masaba (c), Simon Ssesazi, Roger Mukasa, Cosmas Kyewuta, Dinesh Nakrani, Fred Achelam, Kenneth Waiswa, Alpesh Ramjani, Frank Nsubuga, Henry Ssenyondo, Bilal Hassun, Robinson Obuya, Riazat Ali Shah, Juma Miyaji, Ronak Patel
Reserves: Innocent Mwebaze, Ronald Lutaaya
Uganda are in Group C alongside Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, West Indies and Afghanistan.
