By: Elena Roopchansingh 3 October, 2024
The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup tournament starts on October 3rd in the United Arab Emirates spanning eighteen days with the final on October 20th. The format is such that the qualified ten teams are split into two groups, each with five teams. Each team will play each other once with the top two teams in each group qualifying for the semi-finals.
Group A holds Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and Group B sees Bangladesh, England, Scotland, South Africa and West Indies. The blockbuster game of Group A is Australia versus India and the expectation is that both of these teams would qualify out of the group for the semifinal stage. England are the strong favourites out of Group B, but there is ample competition amongst the other teams for the other semifinal spot.
Tournament favourites are no real surprise with Australia, England and India. These are also the top three ranked teams according to the ICC’s rankings. All three boast strong teams and experience in terms of tournaments, being in high pressure situations and dealing with heavy expectations. Australia are the defending champions having conquered the tournament in 2022 against hosts South Africa. They have also won it the most, six times out of the eight versions of this tournament with three of those the last three times the tournament occurred. Australia are a team undergoing some transitions with prominent players retiring in recent years, but it’ll be wise to never underestimate or count them out of any fight. England are also front-runners with a strong team. Their recent T20 form has been mainly blemish free with the last series loss coming in 2023 at the hands of Sri Lanka. They’ve also drawn the two match 2024 series against Ireland. Favourites can never be discussed without mentioning India. India would be looking to mirror the success of the men’s team in the 2024 men’s edition of the tournament where they emerged victorious. Boasting an incredibly talented team India’s case is strong with captain Harmanpreet Kaur looking to lead her charges and get her hands on their first ICC title.
The likes of Nat Sciver-Brunt, Sophie Ecclestone, Alyssa Healy, Ellyse Perry, Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Marizanne Kapp and Hayley Matthews are bound to set this tournament alight. Newcomers Scotland also present an exciting and new dimension to the tournament looking to make an impression having made it through the qualifier tournament in May 2024 along with Sri Lanka.
Favourites or not, experienced or inexperienced, tournaments have the magic of bringing unexpected and unpredictable moments which make it all the more exciting. These tags have little bearing when a batter is just focused on playing the next ball, when the bowler is aiming for the top of off stump, when the fielder is focused on taking that catch or restricting those runs. It all comes down to these small but differentiating details and moments and in tournament play it’s anyone’s game.