In the 33rd match of the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, India and Canada will cross swords. This Group A clash will be held at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground in Lauderhill, Florida.
Though this match might not be of any importance if we consider the qualification race for the Super 8s, both teams will have their reasons to give it their all. With three straight wins, India is at the top of the Group A standings and has already qualified for the Super 8s, but they would want to enter the next stage with an unbeaten record.
On the other hand, Canada defeated Ireland which keeps them mathematically in the hunt for a Super 8s place. However, given that both the United States of America and Pakistan have a much better net run rate, their journey is very likely to end with this match. Hence, Canada will try to produce some memorable moments against India, which they might use as inspiration in the coming years.
What has happened so far?
India has won all of their three matches, although they faced some difficulties in two of those wins. The only one-sided win was in the match game against Ireland, where Rohit Sharma’s bowlers bowled Ireland out for just 96 runs, and then chased it down in 12.2 overs, losing only 2 wickets.
In the highly anticipated clash against Pakistan, Indian batters struggled big time as they were bowled out for just 119 runs, but the bowlers delivered again as India managed to clinch a 6-run win.
Then in the last match against the USA, Indian bowlers were on song for the third time in a row, restricting the co-hosts to 110/8. Unexpectedly, the team did face challenges with the bat but eventually chased the target down in 18.2 overs.
Coming to Canada, they batted well against the USA in the first match to score 194/5, but could not defend that total as Aaron Jones set the stage ablaze. But against Ireland, Canadian bowlers delivered as they successfully defended a total of 137/7.
Canada’s last match was against Pakistan, where he scored 106/7 before asking some questions to the Pakistani batters. But the Men in Green indeed won that match, though taking 17.3 overs to score only 107 runs.
Head to Head Record
This will be a historic match because it will be the first time that India and Canada will be facing off in a game of cricket. While this is Canada’s first-ever T20 World Cup campaign, they did play in the ODI World Cup thrice – in 2003, 2007 and 2011. However, they did not face India in any of those tournaments.
Key Players
Arshdeep Singh is currently the joint-highest wicket-taker for India
Arshdeep Singh (India): There is some connection between Arshdeep Singh and T20 World Cups. Back in 2022, he was the leading wicket-taker for India with 10 wickets but was not considered among India’s prime wicket-taking options for this edition, given his hot and cold form in the Indian Premier League.
But so far, Arshdeep has been excellent with the ball for India, taking 7 wickets at an average of just over 10 and an economy rate of slightly over 6 runs per over. Against Ireland, he picked up 2 wickets at the expense of 35 runs.
Then in the match against Pakistan, he picked up the crucial wicket of Imad Wasim but reserved his best performance for the USA where Arshdeep won the Player of the Match award for picking up 4 wickets while conceding only 9 runs.
Nicholas Kirton (Canada): For Canada, the best player so far has been the Barbados-born batter Nicholas Kirton. He is currently his team’s highest run-scorer with 101 runs in three games which came at an average of just under 35 and a strike rate of over 140.
He was among the main reasons behind Canada scoring 194 runs against the USA as Kirton scored 51 runs in just 31 balls, with the help of 3 fours and 2 sixes. In the second match against Ireland, Kirton scored 49 runs in just 35 deliveries. However, he could only score 1 run against Pakistan in the last match.
Predicted XIs
India: Rohit Sharma ©, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj.
Canada: Aaron Johnson, Navneet Dhaliwal, Pargat Singh, Nicholas Kirton, Shreyas Movva (wk), Dilpreet Bajwa, Saad Bin Zafar ©, Dillon Heyliger, Kaleem Sana, Junaid Siddiqui, Jeremy Gordon.
Prediction
It is indeed true that this T20 World Cup has been full of upsets, and the USA nearly caused a mighty upset in the match against India. But that being said, the gulf in pedigree between these two teams is huge, and hence India is the outright favorite to win the contest.