Even the most pessimistic of Australian cricket fans will be feeling bullish about their team’s chances at the ICC T20 World Cup this October. They’ve won six of the last seven editions of the tournament dating back to 2010. In fact, scratch that, they’ve obliterated their opponents in this format: winning by eight wickets, 85 runs, and a comfortable 19 runs in their last three T20 World Cup finals.
Notably, Alyssa Healy’s team won the World Cup the last time it headed to Bangladesh in 2014, and won 3-0 in a three-game T20 series in the country in April. They have a mastery of the typically slow and turning conditions that is second to none.
So victory in the upcoming 2024 edition is a formality… right?
Spin It to Win It
Those who bet on sports would certainly need persuading that Australia aren’t going to romp to World Cup victory once more – they are the -133 favorites to lift the trophy.
But the sports betting tips columns worth their salt will be keen to remind readers that the conditions in Bangladesh are far away from those that Australians are raised on – even accounting for their success in the country.
The world of women’s cricket has moved on considerably since the last time the T20 World Cup headed to Bangladesh a decade ago, with the gulf in class between Australia and the rest now markedly closer.
The Aussies will also have to make do without the inspirational Meg Lanning, whose decision to retire from international cricket was met with an outpouring of grief within their camp – after all, this was the woman who captained them to five of those World Cup triumphs.
In her final year playing international cricket, Meg Lanning led Australia to glory in the ODI World Cup, Commonwealth Games and T20 World Cup 🏆
What a way to sign off one of the greatest careers ✨ pic.twitter.com/hIFCeFiKWZ
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) November 9, 2023
The shift to spin in Bangladesh perhaps also levels the playing field. It’s not as if that department isn’t well stocked for Australia, with Sophie Molineux and Jess Jonassen showing their class on the turning pitches of the Women’s Premier League earlier this year, and Georgia Wareham and Ashleigh Gardner ranked amongst the world’s best spin bowlers.
But there are others at the T20 World Cup that can lay claim to a strong spin bowling department too…
Turn and Bounce
England can lay claim to having the best spin bowler on the planet in Sophie Ecclestone – she’s ranked number one in the ICC’s T20 world rankings.
No words left to describe Sophie Ecclestone 🤯#EnglandCricket pic.twitter.com/ZYEcZxZCy7
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 30, 2024
And this is a team with four World Cup final appearances to their name, while the development of The Hundred is also giving the English players a chance to shine in front of decent-sized crowds in the shortest format of them all.
And then there’s India, who should be well-suited to the conditions in Bangladesh. They don’t have a great record in the T20 World Cup, relatively speaking, with just one final appearance, but they do possess a squad packed with up-and-coming talent.
In Deepti Sharma, they possess one of the finest spin-bowling all-rounders in world cricket, while Asha Sobhana showed her class when winning the Purple Cap in the Women’s Premier League earlier in 2024.
An exciting batting line-up is headlined by Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur, so maybe India and England are more than capable of derailing Australia’s dominance of the T20 World Cup later this year.
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