Today sees the start of the ICC Twenty20 Tournament, as 16 cricketing countries compete in the most entertaining and exciting version of the sport. You can be sure of boundaries a plenty as Scotland, Ireland, and England take part in the 6th Edition of the competition.
Over the next four weeks 58 matches will be played across eight venues throughout India.
The first 10 matches in the tournament will be two mini round robin competitions containing the ‘Qualifying’ countries which include Scotland and Ireland. The winners of both leagues enter into the ‘Super 10’ stage where they join the 8 most established full member countries (of which England is part), and again split into two groups where they play another set of round robin tournaments.
The top two from each league progress to the semi finals and then if successful onto the final which is to be held in Eden Gardens, Kolkata on 3rd April.
England - winners of the competition in 2010 - have been drawn in the same group as defending champions Sri Lanka, 2012 winners West Indies and South Africa, who are second in the International Cricket Council T20 rankings. Last time out England massively underperformed only winning 1 match – strangely enough against the eventual winners Sri Lanka – and even suffered an embarrassing defeat by the Netherlands.
Here are the home nation squads for the tournament:
Ireland
• William Porterfield (captain), Andrew Balbirnie, George Dockrell, Andrew McBrine, Tim Murtagh, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Andrew Poynter, Stuart Poynter, Boyd Rankin, Max Sorensen, Paul Stirling, Stuart Thompson, Gary Wilson, Craig Young
Scotland
• Preston Mommsen (captain), Kyle Coetzer, Richie Berrington, Matthew Cross, Josh Davey, Con de Lange, Alasdair Evans, Michael Leask, Matt Machan, Calum MacLeod, Gavin Main, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Rob Taylor, Mark Watt
England
• Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Liam Dawson, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, James Vince, David Willey
For further information on the tournament please head on over to the official website here.