The ICC World T20 2016 is impending and the cricket fraternity is busy picking their favourites. MS Dhoni’s Team India are red-hot favourites because it is shaping up well, for being on a roll after two consecutive series wins; while the Australians are not being spoken about much following their poor show. There are worries around Sri Lanka, while England and South Africa are being taken quite seriously. Pakistanis are expected to do well, since they will be coming off the PSL 2016. It will be daft to write West Indies off. Then there are the forever-dangerous New Zealand as well. While all this is being discussed, the basic principle of the T20 format has been forgotten: unpredictability.
The inaugural ICC Word T20 2007 was definitely the most entertaining edition: it all boiled down to the final over of the tournament to decide the winner. What if Misbah-ul-Haq had not looped the ball carelessly towards fine-leg? What if he had hit it straight down the ground as clearly as he had been doing that day? What if S Sreesanth had dropped the catch? India and Pakistan had already played a bowl-out earlier in the tournament: there was no clear winner if these two sides were bound to play the final. India just had a bit more luck than Pakistan.
T20 cricket has engrossed the world quickly than the other formats: it has more strokes in offering and the sadist trait in us all to see someone being punished (read: the bowlers) makes the game more interesting. Batsmen have become innovative, flanked by thicker pieces of wood in their hands and assisted by shorter boundaries. It is batsmen who have changed the game via T20 cricket, and the repercussions of the same can be seen in the other two forms of the game as well.
While run-scoring remains a primary fundamental on which T20 cricket exists, it is largely a competition between two sides on how well their batsmen can hit. The domestic cricket leagues such as IPL, BBL and even CPL has resulted in the batsmen getting better every passing day, reducing bowlers into mere participants.
The ICC World T20 2016 will be played in India, and for obvious reasons every single side has the chance to win it. India are being termed favourites because of their current momentum and team composition, but it must be remembered that almost every team has key players who are well aware of the Indian pitches and conditions. For example, Australia have David Warner, Steven Smith, Shane Watson, Glenn Maxwell and a few others who have been playing in the IPL for years. There are many from the Caribbean spending months in India, many Sri Lankans, South Africans, and even from New Zealand.
The Pakistanis and Bangladeshis will find the conditions similar to what they get at home, and thus, ICC World T20 2016 cannot have any team in particular who can be termed favourites. The one who plays better and has a little bit of luck on their side emerges winner.