A warm hello to everyone reading this!
Let us have a look at what to look forward to in Indian Cricket in 2020!
Let us start with Men’s Cricket.
Test Cricket: We are now into the second year of the 2019-21 ICC Test Championship cycle. India is firmly on top and in the driver’s seat to qualify for next year’s final. If you want to understand how ICC Test Championship works, click here.
Every team is supposed to play 6 Test Series (3 Home & 3 Away). India has already played 2 home and 1 away series. India has achieved maximum points in these 3 series without losing a test match.
However, this year is going to be tougher for Team India as it has 2 away series to play. India will tour New Zealand in February for 2 Tests and Australia in December for 4 Tests. If India performs well, it will definitely secure its place in Test Championship Final. Here is a quick look at Test Championship table right now:
ODI Cricket: India will be looking to rebuild its One Day Team with 2023 World Cup vision. It will mean bringing in new players and rotating current team members. In all possibility, 2020 will be the year MS Dhoni retires from one day cricket. Whenever he decides to do that, his farewell series will be one to look forward too. In terms of big tournaments, there will be Asia Cup in September. India will be looking to defend its title in UAE. In terms of schedule, India will be playing ODI series against Australia, South Africa and England at home and away against New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
T20 Cricket: All the eyes this year will be on Indian T20 team with the World Cup in October. India last won this trophy in 2007. Since then, 5 T20 World Cup have happened and India has reached the final only once in 2014. The last T20 World Cup happened in India itself and India were eliminated at the Semi-Final stage. So, 2020 brings fresh hopes for Indian Cricket fans.
The World Cup will happen in Australia this year. Australia has big grounds and fast pitches. India is going into the World Cup already with a disadvantage. Indian players are not allowed to play in foreign T20 leagues. Currently, players from world over are playing in Big Bash – Australia’s T20 league. They are getting a chance to play in the same conditions where World Cup will be played. If you have been following T20 cricket, you would know it is very fickle in nature and conditions play a huge role. So, it would be interesting to see how Indian players cope up with Australian conditions.
If you look at this year’s Big Bash stats, you would know conditions are pretty different from those in India. Average score is around 150 as opposed to batting friendly Indian pitches where scores upwards of 170 are common. The upcoming IPL will help selectors look at players who will be in the squad for Australia. Let us see how Team India performs at the World Cup.
Here is your Cricket Calendar for 2020!
Let us now have a look at Women’s Cricket.
Women’s T20 World Cup is also this year only and it will also happen in Australia in February-March. There have been 6 T20 Women’s World Cup till now and India has reached Semi-finals 3 times. Indian Women’s Team will be looking to lift their 1st ever T20 World Cup this March in Australia. Ahead of the World Cup, Indian team will be playing a T20 Tri-series in Australia along with England.
The team has also been announced for World Cup. Harmanpreet Kaur will be leading a young squad. Here is the team: Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Veda K, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Deepti Sharma, Shikha Pandey, P Vastrakar, Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy, Rajeshwari Gaekwad, Richa Ghosh.
Indian Women’s One-Day Team will also looking to secure direct qualification to 2021 Women’s ODI World Cup. India is currently ranked 3rd in the ICC Women’s Championship 2017-20. Top 4 will directly qualify.
So lots of cricket to look forward to in 2020…
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