T20 and T20I cricket prediction and discussion

[Swordsoffreedom]

West Indies will give all us surprise in T20 world cup. See the performance of this team in the T20 matches against Australia. West Indies have won last three T20 Matches against Australia which shows the form the current team is in. If they could perform a similar manner in the world cup, they could be one of the favorites for the cup.

West Indies looks to be in great form. One thing they need to look in to, is the team cohesion. And this is one department where they have consistently faced issues. They have some of the best players in cricket, but if the team bonding is not good then the star power is of no use. But I saw a lot of encouraging signs during their series against Australia. They played with a lot of cohesion, during each of the T20 matches. That makes West Indies, the favorites to win this year's world cup IMO.

Looking at the performance of the West Indies in the current T20 format, it seems that they are back to their old form. If they can maintain such a great performance till the World Cup, they will also fight hard to win the World Cup title. In the last match against Australia, they scored 142 runs in just 14.5 overs. It is not an easy task to score 142 runs in just 14.5 overs against a strong bowling lineup like Australia.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Looking at the performance of the West Indies in the current T20 format, it seems that they are back to their old form. If they can maintain such a great performance till the World Cup, they will also fight hard to win the World Cup title. In the last match against Australia, they scored 142 runs in just 14.5 overs. It is not an easy task to score 142 runs in just 14.5 overs against a strong bowling lineup like Australia.

Have to disagree. Australian bowling is quite ordinary nowadays. Two decades ago, they had the best pace attack in the world, with Glen McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie destroying the opposition with seam movement and bounce. And they had the best spinner as well (Shane Warne). But the current bunch can't be compared to them. Mitchell Starc is too wayward and Josh Hazlewood lacks venom. At least when compared to the Kiwi pace attack (Jamieson/Boult/Southee/Ferguson/Milne/Wagner), Australians now look second class.

[JSRAW]

That i agree, although one reason could be lack of quality women players in the country. We do have state teams but it seems quality is not up to mark. After all, you do need fair amount of domestic talent pool to fill the squads and become self sufficient in some sense as far as revenue is concern. I'm hopeful that in next years or so we'll see some sort of positive updates in this regard.

I don't think that the lack of quality players is the reason. Last time, the women's domestic tournament involved a total of 38 teams and the quality was satisfactory (at least for the elite division). I have noticed a number of talented female players, who are not fortunate enough to be considered by the national selectors. But some of them have performed consistently well in the domestic circuit for many years now. Without the WIPL, these talented players will just vanish from the limelight after sometime, just like what happened to dozens like them in the previous decades. There needs to be a level between the national team and the domestic tournaments. WIPL would have filled that gap.

Could be but let's say if BCCI gives green light to 7-8 teams WIPL then it would require minimum 80-100 quality or okayish players. 40-50 players seems manageable to me because there are many state teams in domestic arena but if we are talking about big talent pool then things might get tricky very quickly.

[bryant.coleman]

Could be but let's say if BCCI gives green light to 7-8 teams WIPL then it would require minimum 80-100 quality or okayish players. 40-50 players seems manageable to me because there are many state teams in domestic arena but if we are talking about big talent pool then things might get tricky very quickly.

I don't think that they need to start with 7-8 teams. I would prefer 4 teams, at least for the first 2-3 years. They can recruit 10-12 Indian players and 8-10 overseas players each for the franchises. That means that a total of 40-48 quality Indian players are needed. Given the talent pool in India, I guess that is very much achievable. For the 4 franchises, I would prefer these cities - Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Kolkata. After 2-3 years, the league can be expanded to 6 teams, and finally to 8-10 teams.

[Mahdirakib]

Looking at the performance of the West Indies in the current T20 format, it seems that they are back to their old form. If they can maintain such a great performance till the World Cup, they will also fight hard to win the World Cup title. In the last match against Australia, they scored 142 runs in just 14.5 overs. It is not an easy task to score 142 runs in just 14.5 overs against a strong bowling lineup like Australia.

Have to disagree. Australian bowling is quite ordinary nowadays. Two decades ago, they had the best pace attack in the world, with Glen McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie destroying the opposition with seam movement and bounce. And they had the best spinner as well (Shane Warne). But the current bunch can't be compared to them. Mitchell Starc is too wayward and Josh Hazlewood lacks venom. At least when compared to the Kiwi pace attack (Jamieson/Boult/Southee/Ferguson/Milne/Wagner), Australians now look second class.

Australia have qualitative players in their cricket team but they aren't playing with their top class players in this series. That's the main reason for their bad performance. Where Windies cricket team playing with their perfect squad. One or two Windies batsman performance is enough to make a good score and create pressure on opponents. And they are well experienced in T20 format. Currently West Indies is hot favourite team in this format. They will remain as same at upcoming T20 world cup.

[JSRAW]

Could be but let's say if BCCI gives green light to 7-8 teams WIPL then it would require minimum 80-100 quality or okayish players. 40-50 players seems manageable to me because there are many state teams in domestic arena but if we are talking about big talent pool then things might get tricky very quickly.

I don't think that they need to start with 7-8 teams. I would prefer 4 teams, at least for the first 2-3 years. They can recruit 10-12 Indian players and 8-10 overseas players each for the franchises. That means that a total of 40-48 quality Indian players are needed. Given the talent pool in India, I guess that is very much achievable. For the 4 franchises, I would prefer these cities - Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Kolkata. After 2-3 years, the league can be expanded to 6 teams, and finally to 8-10 teams.

They started Women's T20 Challenge /WIPL back in 2018 with 2 teams and then added 1 more team. If you look at the last 2020 season they only played 4 games, included final , sounds like a joke to me. The way BCCI conducting business it does look like India lack enough players in domestic arena or they are just ignoring Women cricket.  .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Women%27s_T20_Challenge

[Vishnu.Reang]

They started Women's T20 Challenge /WIPL back in 2018 with 2 teams and then added 1 more team. If you look at the last 2020 season they only played 4 games, included final , sounds like a joke to me. The way BCCI conducting business it does look like India lack enough players in domestic arena or they are just ignoring Women cricket.  .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Women%27s_T20_Challenge

The T20 challenge is not WIPL. It is just a handful of exhibition matches and are not played at franchise-level (unlike the case with WBBL). They can start the WIPL with a small number of teams, so that at least the top players get an opportunity to play at franchise level. Else, Australia and England will continue with their dominance in the women's game. Actually the BCCI don't need to spend any of their money. Whatever expenses are there will be covered by the broadcasters and the sponsors.

[Swordsoffreedom]

What a competitive match! In the fourth T20 match of the series, Australia batted first and set a huge target of 190 runs. 190 in 20 overs is a very big target, because Australia's bowling lineup is strong. The West Indies lost but they fought hard. They needed 36 runs in the last two overs. West Indies scored 25 runs in the 19th over. But in the last over Russel managed to score only 6 runs with 6 balls. Australia won the last over for Starc's experienced bowling. Otherwise, as usual, today's match would have been lost.

[Sithara007]

What a competitive match! In the fourth T20 match of the series, Australia batted first and set a huge target of 190 runs. 190 in 20 overs is a very big target, because Australia's bowling lineup is strong. The West Indies lost but they fought hard. They needed 36 runs in the last two overs. West Indies scored 25 runs in the 19th over. But in the last over Russel managed to score only 6 runs with 6 balls. Australia won the last over for Starc's experienced bowling. Otherwise, as usual, today's match would have been lost.

37 runs were needed by the time Riley Meredith came to bowl the 19th over. He conceded 26 runs from this 5runs, as Andre Russell and Fabian Allen smashed him all over the park. But like anti-climax, Allen got out in the last ball of that over. 11 runs were needed from the over that was bowled by Mitchell Starc, but Russell and Hayden Walsh couldn't manage that. Anyway, with regards to Australia, it was nice to see Aaron Finch back to form. Mitchell Marsh was performing well, and this time also he didn't disappoint.

[Juggy777]

What a competitive match! In the fourth T20 match of the series, Australia batted first and set a huge target of 190 runs. 190 in 20 overs is a very big target, because Australia's bowling lineup is strong. The West Indies lost but they fought hard. They needed 36 runs in the last two overs. West Indies scored 25 runs in the 19th over. But in the last over Russel managed to score only 6 runs with 6 balls. Australia won the last over for Starc's experienced bowling. Otherwise, as usual, today's match would have been lost.

37 runs were needed by the time Riley Meredith came to bowl the 19th over. He conceded 26 runs from this 5runs, as Andre Russell and Fabian Allen smashed him all over the park. But like anti-climax, Allen got out in the last ball of that over. 11 runs were needed from the over that was bowled by Mitchell Starc, but Russell and Hayden Walsh couldn't manage that. Anyway, with regards to Australia, it was nice to see Aaron Finch back to form. Mitchell Marsh was performing well, and this time also he didn't disappoint.

@Sithara007 it was good to see Australia bounce back in this series, and hopefully they can build on this in the 5th T20. Lastly I yet can’t digest the fact that Russel failed to click, because he’s a big hitter whenever I have seen him play in the IPL.

[bryant.coleman]

What a competitive match! In the fourth T20 match of the series, Australia batted first and set a huge target of 190 runs. 190 in 20 overs is a very big target, because Australia's bowling lineup is strong. The West Indies lost but they fought hard. They needed 36 runs in the last two overs. West Indies scored 25 runs in the 19th over. But in the last over Russel managed to score only 6 runs with 6 balls. Australia won the last over for Starc's experienced bowling. Otherwise, as usual, today's match would have been lost.

I have to disagree if you claim that the Australian bowling lineup is strong. IMO, it is very weak right now. Apart from Starc and Hazlewood, there are no experienced pacers in the squad (and that was evident when Meredith conceded 26 runs in his 4th over). In fact I would say that the current Australian bowling lineup is the weakest we had, in a long time. They were never this bad in the pace department. Inexperienced bowlers such as Riley Meredith, Jason Behrendorff and Kane Richardson just can't handle the pressure of international matches.

[Mahdirakib]

I have to disagree if you claim that the Australian bowling lineup is strong. IMO, it is very weak right now. Apart from Starc and Hazlewood, there are no experienced pacers in the squad (and that was evident when Meredith conceded 26 runs in his 4th over). In fact I would say that the current Australian bowling lineup is the weakest we had, in a long time. They were never this bad in the pace department. Inexperienced bowlers such as Riley Meredith, Jason Behrendorff and Kane Richardson just can't handle the pressure of international matches.

Experienced bowlers aren't important always. T20 is a short form of cricket, a good bowler gets much priority than a experienced bowlers in this format. A bowler needs to make few good delivery to create pressure on batsman. Starc have bowled perfectly in his last over, his bowling speed was impressive. Which helped them to get the victory. He was an expensive bowler too in this match.

[ene1980]

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West Indies will give all us surprise in T20 world cup. See the performance of this team in the T20 matches against Australia. West Indies have won last three T20 Matches against Australia which shows the form the current team is in. If they could perform a similar manner in the world cup, they could be one of the favorites for the cup.

I do not doubt the capability of West Indies to lift the World Cup, when they first won the World Cup i never expected them to lift the cup but i still remember the last over smashing of Carlos Brathwaite when i thought there is no way they are not going to win. They have T20 specialist players and their only challenge will be England and India can be a challenge because of home town advantage.

[LittleBitFunny]

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West Indies will give all us surprise in T20 world cup. See the performance of this team in the T20 matches against Australia. West Indies have won last three T20 Matches against Australia which shows the form the current team is in. If they could perform a similar manner in the world cup, they could be one of the favorites for the cup.

I do not doubt the capability of West Indies to lift the World Cup, when they first won the World Cup i never expected them to lift the cup but i still remember the last over smashing of Carlos Brathwaite when i thought there is no way they are not going to win. They have T20 specialist players and their only challenge will be England and India can be a challenge because of home town advantage.

West Indies players will get a lot of benefits on the Indian pitch. Because almost all the players in the West Indies participate in the IPL, and almost everyone performs exceptionally well in the IPL. I think England, India, and West Indies will be equal contenders for the next T20 Cup. But I can't rely on the West Indies team, there are a lot of T20 specialist players on the team but it's hard to predict how they will perform.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Experienced bowlers aren't important always. T20 is a short form of cricket, a good bowler gets much priority than a experienced bowlers in this format. A bowler needs to make few good delivery to create pressure on batsman. Starc have bowled perfectly in his last over, his bowling speed was impressive. Which helped them to get the victory. He was an expensive bowler too in this match.

Starc has the experience, but he is very inconsistent. And bowlers such as Starc and Meredith are like express pace bowlers and they are more suitable for the test format rather than the shorter formats. In T20, there is no room for error. Bowlers like Starc sprays ball all over the place and that sort of bowling is not suitable for T20. And especially so, if they are playing against a team like the West Indies. The only Australian bowler who I believe has the capability to bowl well in shorter format is Josh Hazlewood. Mitchell Marsh may be another one, but he is not a full time bowler.

[Swordsoffreedom]

The Indian women's team did not win a single series against the England women's team. India have won one of their three ODIs and they have won one of the three T20 matches. In today's match, England defeated India women's team by 8 wickets. The Indian women's bowling lineup needs further improvement.

[JSRAW]

Experienced bowlers aren't important always. T20 is a short form of cricket, a good bowler gets much priority than a experienced bowlers in this format. A bowler needs to make few good delivery to create pressure on batsman. Starc have bowled perfectly in his last over, his bowling speed was impressive. Which helped them to get the victory. He was an expensive bowler too in this match.

Starc has the experience, but he is very inconsistent. And bowlers such as Starc and Meredith are like express pace bowlers and they are more suitable for the test format rather than the shorter formats. In T20, there is no room for error. Bowlers like Starc sprays ball all over the place and that sort of bowling is not suitable for T20. And especially so, if they are playing against a team like the West Indies. The only Australian bowler who I believe has the capability to bowl well in shorter format is Josh Hazlewood. Mitchell Marsh may be another one, but he is not a full time bowler.

I might be wrong but Imo and observation Strac lost all his mojo after Sand_paper_gate_saga. I noticed him struggling numerous time after his South Africa's stint. He might still able to give match winning spell once a while which everyone witnessed in last T-20 match against Windies but its clear that he's not same the Starc.

[Vishnu.Reang]

I might be wrong but Imo and observation Strac lost all his mojo after Sand_paper_gate_saga. I noticed him struggling numerous time after his South Africa's stint. He might still able to give match winning spell once a while which everyone witnessed in last T-20 match against Windies but its clear that he's not same the Starc.

It may or may not be due to the sand paper scandal. But for the last many years, his form has remained poor. As you mentioned, once in a blue moon he performs like a world class bowler. But on majority of the occasions, he is quite ordinary. But the problem for Australia is that he's still their best bowler. This is not the Australian team we had one or two decades ago. Perhaps Mitchell Johnson was their last world class bowler. After he retired in 2018, Australian bowling has struggled, especially in pace department. Also, Starc used to perform well when he bowled in tandem with Mitchell Johnson.

[LittleBitFunny]

The Indian women's team did not win a single series against the England women's team. India have won one of their three ODIs and they have won one of the three T20 matches. In today's match, England defeated India women's team by 8 wickets. The Indian women's bowling lineup needs further improvement.

Compared to England and Australia, the Indian women's team is very weak. The Australian women's team in particular performed exceptionally well. This team is very strong. Although India did not win a series against England, they are playing well enough. I saw the highlights of the match. Women's cricket has improved a lot in the past few years.

[Iranus]

Pakistan's national team is declining day by day but their women's team is improving. Today they are playing against the West Indies women's team. West Indies gave Pakistan a target of 211 runs. Pakistan lost 3 wickets and scored 146 runs. They need only 63 runs in 14 overs. I think, Pakistan will get an easy victory.