By Rahul Jeyanthan
After looking at the teams in group B yesterday, now let’s go through the squads of Group A, excluding Sri Lanka. Again this article will go through each team’s key players, strengths and weaknesses, and where they are likely to finish in the table.
Ireland-
Having been a part of every T20 World Cup other than the very first edition, the 2021 Ireland squad is a mixture of the familiar and the new. Ireland’s greatest strength is in their batting with a strong batting line up headed by the experienced Paul Stirling who might be accompanied in the opening slot by Kevin O’Brien. They will be followed by the exciting Gareth Delaney and captain Andrew Balbirnie.
The middle-order is likely to be bolstered by the transformed George Dockrell, whose batting has come on leaps and bounds in the recent past as well as young all-rounder Curtis Campher, who has shown a lot of promise in his relatively short international career and young talent Harry Tector (who might start on the bench), long considered to be the future of Irish batting. The wicketkeeper slot will be taken up by either of Neil Rock and Lorcan Tucker, with Rock seeming to be the preferred option. Ireland also possess a long batting line up going down all the way to the bowlers with both Simi Singh and Mark Adair having the ability to go big.
Bowling could be considered Ireland’s relatively weaker suite with likely front line pacers Josh Little and Craig Young while having shown wicket-taking ability have also gone for plenty of runs on some days. They will be complemented by Mark Adair and the medium pace of Kevin O’Brien and Curtis Campher while the leg spin of Ben White seems to be the preferred spin option over the experienced Andy McBrine and he will be supported by Simi Singh, George Dockrell, Paul Stirling and Gareth Delany.
Strengths- Long Batting lineup, Experience
Weakness- Inconsistent bowling
Netherlands-
The Netherlands have had quite a history of causing a stir at the T20 World Cup, especially with their upsets against England in 2009 and 2014 and their historic chase against Ireland. The 2021 Netherlands squad look perhaps their strongest yet and they might extend their history of upsets in this tournament by making it into the Super Twelves.
Netherland’s relatively weaker area seems to be their batting but they are still strong in that area with a strong opening partnership of Stephan Myburgh and Max O’Dowd which will likely be followed by the experienced duo of Colin Ackermann and Ben Cooper. The lower middle order will be bolstered by the likes of wicketkeeper Scott Edwards, Bas De Leede, Ryan Ten Doeschate in his final tournament as well as Roelof Van Der Merwe. Even the likes of Logan Van Beek (if called into action) and Pieter Seelaar are handy batsmen in their own right.
Bowling is where their real strength lies though, especially in pace bowling with Netherlands having the luxury of selecting from multiple strong options including Timm Van Der Gugten, Paul Van Meekeren, Brandon Glover and Fred Klaasen. Van Der Gugten, Klaasen and Van Meekeren might be the preferred starting pace attack, even though it is hard to predict who will start. Netherlands seem pretty strong with the dual left arm threat of Seelaar and Van Der Merwe with the offies of Ackermann and it remains to be seen if there is a place in the XI for young leggie Phillippe Boissevain.
Strengths- Strong bowling attack, Deep Batting lineup
Weaknesses- Batting can be inconsistent at times
Namibia-
The newcomers at the T20 World Cup this is a rejuvenated Namibia squad that will be looking to spring a surprise. While it is unlikely that they will progress to the next round they will be looking to make an impression with what is a relatively young squad.
The batting lineup will likely be headed by Stephen Baard and wicket-keeper Zane Green with Baard being one of Namibia’s leading players who will be hoping to deliver. Likely No.3 Craig Williams has also been a consistent performer in the recent past while the undoubted star batsman in the side is captain Gerhard Erasmus. The middle-order should be strengthened by the addition of recent entrant David Wiese who will be likely followed by all-rounders JJ Smit and Jan Frylinck and then perhaps the player with the best name in the tournament Pikky Ya France.
On the bowling front much of the burden will once again fall on Fylinck who has been Namibia’s leading performer with the ball in the recent past. He will be supported in the pace bowling stocks by JJ Smit, Ruben Trumpelmann, Ben Shikongo and the effective medium pace of David Wiese. On the spin front, Bernard Scholtz has proven to be an effective performer at the associate level ably supported by Gerhard Erasmus. Like most associate teams Namibia also have plenty of players who can turn their arm over such as Craig Williams, Pikky Ya France and Karl Birkenstock so they are not lacking in bowling options.
Strengths- Decent Batting line up (Especially the top order)
Weaknesses- Weaker Middle order, Bowling can be expensive at times
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