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India-Pakistan to clash in T20 World Cup as ICC name groups for global showpiece event

Mayank Kumar

The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the groups for the upcoming T20 World Cup on Friday, July 16. The event which would take place in UAE and Oman in October- November this year, will feature an all-important and mouthwatering India- Pakistan clash at the group stages itself. The arch-rivals have been drawn into the same group (Group 2) alongside New Zealand and Afghanistan. the group would get two more teams which would advance from the qualifying stage. 

A total of eight teams have been classified into two groups while four teams will advance to the Super 12s after passing through the qualifier round. The defending champions West Indies have been placed in Group 1 along with Australia, England and South Africa.

Among the qualifying teams, the ICC has classified eight teams into two groups. In group A of qualification, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands and Namibia will go head to head to reach the super 12s while Bangladesh, Scotland, Oman and Papua New Guinea will fight to reach the next stage. The top two teams from both groups will advance to the decisive phase of the tournament.

“We are delighted to announce the groups for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021. There are some great matchups offered by the groups and it starts to bring the event to life for our fans as our first multi-team event since the onset of the global pandemic draws closer,” ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said in a statement.

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly, while speaking at the special occasion said,  “It is good to get Oman in the frame of world cricket with the hosting of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. It will help a lot of young players take an interest in the game. We know it will be a world-class event in this part of the world.”

The ICC has yet not announced the full schedule of the event to be held in the UAE and Oman by the host BCCI. The tournament will begin on October 17 and the final will be played on November 14.

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Rashid Latif says it was a blunder to sack Sarfaraz Ahmed and Mickey Arthur

Former Pakistan Test skipper and a wicket-keeper batsman Rashid Latif has come hard at the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and said that it was a blunder on their part to remove Sarfaraz Ahmed and Mickey Arthur from the post of a captain and a head coach after the team’s elimination in the 2019 World Cup. “Why was Mickey Arthur removed…what was the reason for his sacking? The team had done well under him and it was progressing well. Check the records and you can see but he was removed because of politics,” Latif said on the YouTube Cricket Baaz channel. He further added that even Sarfaraz under whose captaincy Pakistan won the 2017 Champions Trophy also didn’t deserve to be removed from the captaincy role. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had sacked Mickey Arthur following Pakistan’s failure to reach the 2019 World Cup semi-finals. Meanwhile, Sarfaraz Ahmed was removed from his post in October-November 2019 following their 0-3 drubbing in a T20 series at the hands of a second-string Sri Lankan side. Sarfaraz and Arthur were at the helm of affairs when Pakistan lifted the ICC Champions Trophy back in 2017. “I don’t blame Misbah-ul Haq, perhaps he didn’t want to be head coach. He was young and inexperienced as a coach so why appoint him? It is the PCB to be blamed for what has happened,” Latif said. Latif felt that following Arthur and Sarfaraz’s sacking, the team had undergone several changes which hasn’t augured well for Pakistan cricket. “Today we have lost to a second string England team badly in the One-Day series which means that our cricket is not good enough to even beat England’s bench strength,” Latif added. Latif is hopeful of the fact that Pakistan can bounce their way back in the T20I series which will be a part of their preparation for the T20 World Cup slated to be played in UAE and Oman in October-November. “Let’s just hope they can bounce back because we can’t afford any more setbacks,” Latif concluded.