Ireland and Scotland set the table at the start of the T20 World Cup | World Twenty 20

Not that the beginning group phase lacks familiar names. The burden of expectations is overwhelming in Sri Lanka, with three finals and profit in 2014 look like distant memories after just three wins in the last 20 years in 20 T20 matches. Now they have to mingle with unfamiliar circles where they have previously played their Group A opponents Ireland, Namibia and the Netherlands in a total of two T20 series, most recently in 2014, and it seems they can’t join the superstar in Super 12 at the same time as thoughtless and far from unlikely. I think it will be a really exciting group for the neutral, says Irish captain Andy Balbirnie. I’m not sure any team will beat all three, I think it’s going to be very difficult.

Ireland last made it to the group stage in 2009, but eight of the young team’s 15-to-15 teams are in the 21-25 age group. Among their more experienced players is Paul Stirling, who currently ranks 15th in the International Cricket Councils T20 batting order and has made five international white ball centuries in the last 15 months. including 142 in the ODI against England last August.

Pauls is very important, he is just healed and healed. Now he’s really consistent and if he has a really good week, I think it goes really far towards us to get to the next stage, Balbirnie says. The last couple of World Cups have been quite disappointing for us, but now we’ve got a bunch of young, hungry cricketers who were probably inspired by that generation and want to go out and express themselves on the world stage.

The Bangladesh World Cup record is bad, but once they have demonstrated their ability to win seven of the ten T20 games in Australia and New Zealand in August and September, the key question is not whether they should get into Group B, but how much damage they can do when they get up. , match polished and combat hardened to Super 12.

In Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman, they have two real stars, and their sixth-ranked world places them ahead of Australia and West India. If they play to their potential, Group B rivals Scotland, PNG and Oman will fight effectively for one place.

This is Scotland’s fourth World Cup, whose only win so far was against Hong Kong in 2016, but they struggled to get there, creeping through despite losing to qualifiers in Singapore, among others, before throwing the UAE in a winner-all-match slant.

Recently, they lost their home series against Zimbabwe last month, but they have done well in their warm-ups, culminating in consecutive wins from the Netherlands and Namibia, and 28-year-old opener George Munsey has made three half-centuries in his last five T20s. They will launch their campaign against Bangladesh on Sunday, and their captain Kyle Coetzer believes the competency should be on our hands.

There is certainly room for improvement, but they were on the right track, he said this week. The guys are playing well and I expect them to come back when the World Cup season starts.

Their competitors are inevitably just as optimistic. We believe in ourselves, we want to set goals, we want to get to the second round and play against the best teams, says Capua Assad Vala of Papua New Guinea, who will make his debut at the World Championships with the best series award. sheltered.

It is an incentive for us. We don’t want this World Cup to be one-off, we want to continue, improve and play against the best. The line-up of the team means that games between these three teams, such as the opening of the tournament, will play a key role, albeit seemingly minor.