ICC T20 Cricket World Cup - All You Need To Know For 2022!

Later on this month, the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup will get underway in Australia, with the first two preliminary stage groups being contested to decide which four teams will go on to join the eight seeded teams in the Main Group Stage.

Of course, cricket-mad fans across the world are already excited at the prospect of what could be an enthralling short overs World Cup Down Under, with many set to head to bookmakers like bet365 Sport in order to place their bets on the games or the tournament outright markets.

In this article, we are going to preview the tournament, take a look back at the history of the event, as well as give you the latest betting odds and our top tips on who are the teams to watch, or maybe even back, to win the event.

So to begin with, let’s first take a look back at the history of the T20 World Cup.

T20 World Cup History

The first T20 World Cup was contested back in 2007 and a total of seven tournaments have been played over the years since then.

The tournament has generally been played every two years, but a number of issues have seen the tournament contested with a gap of five years (between 2016 and 2021) and just one year (from 2021 to 2022).

The 2022 tournament will be hosted by Australia, who were meant to host the 2020 tournament, which was postponed due to the pandemic before being moved to India, where it was also postponed due to the pandemic, and then move last minute onto the UAE and Oman in 2021.

This format of cricket sees both teams given just 20 overs to score as many runs as they can, while trying to bowl their opponents out, either for a low score or getting all batsmen out before the end of the 20 over limit.

This particular form of cricket has grown in popularity due to the fast-paced, big-hitting nature of the game, as well as the addition of music and dancers to celebrate boundaries, wickets and similar.

Only one team, the West Indies, has won the T20 World Cup more than once as you can see in the list of winners below.

T20 Tournament History, Venue, Winners, Runners Up

2007 – in South Africa – India beat Pakistan by five runs.
2009 – in England – Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by 8 wickets.
2011 – in West Indies – England beat Australia by 7 wickets.
2012 – in Sri Lanka – West Indies beat Sri Lanka by 36 runs.
2014 – in Bangladesh – Sri Lanka beat India by 6 wickets.
2016 – in India – West Indies beat England by 4 wickets.
2021 – in UAE & Oman – Australia beat New Zealand by 8 wickets

T20 World Cup Winners

West Indies (2012, 2016) – 2 wins
India (2007), Pakistan (2009), England (2011), Sri Lanka (2014), Australia (2021) – 1 win

New Zealand and South Africa are the only two top class T20 teams not to have won the World Cup as yet.

Future T20 World Cup Venues

The future venues for the tournament have been confirmed through 2022 to 2030 and will be as follows:

2022 – Australia
2024 – West Indies & United States
2026 – India & Sri Lanka
2028 – Australia & New Zealand
2030 – United Kingdom & Ireland

Nine teams have appeared in every T20 Cricket World Cup Finals, West Indies, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and Bangladesh.

Ireland have appeared in all of the last six tournaments, only missing the 2007 tournament.

T20 World Cup Record Holders

Most Runs – 1,016 by Mahela Jaywardene (Sri Lanka)
Highest Score – 123 by Brendon McCullum (New Zealand v Bangladesh in 2012)
Highest Average – 76.81 by Virat Kohli (India)
Most Sixes – Chris Gayle (West Indies) – 63
Most Runs in a Single Tournament – Virat Kohli (India) – 319 in 2014
Most Wickets – Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh) – 41
Best Bowling Figures – Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe 2012), 6 for 8.
Highest Team Total – 260 – Sri Lanka (v Kenya) 2007
Lowest Team Total – 39 – Netherlands (v Sri Lanka) 2014

T20 World Cup Player Of The Tournament Awards

2007 – Shahid Afridi (Pakistan) – 12 wickets and 91 runs
2009 – Tillikaratne Dilshan (Sri Lanka) – 317 runs
2010 – Kevin Pieterson (England) – 248 runs
2012 – Shane Watson (Australia) – 249 runs and 11 wickets
2014 – Virat Kohli (India) – 319 runs
2016 – Virat Kohli (India) – 273 runs
2021 – David Warner (Australia) – 289 runs

T20 World Cup 2022 – Preview And Betting Tips

The forthcoming T20 World Cup will be hosted in Australia from the 16^th October through to the 13^th November 2022.

A total of 16 teams will compete in the tournament which will be divided into three stages:

First Round

The First Round comprises of two groups of four teams, Group A and Group B, in which the teams play each other once in each group to decide which two teams from each group progress into the Super 12 round.

The bottom eight seeds in the tournament, based on their T20 ranking performances, will contest this opening phase and the Groups have been drawn as follows:

Group A

Namibia
Netherlands
Sri Lanka
United Arab Emirates

Group B

Ireland
Scotland
West Indies
Zimbabwe

Namibia v Sri Lanka and Netherlands v UAE will kick off the tournament in the opening games on the 16^th October.

Super 12 Series

The Super 12 series sees the top 8 teams from the last T20 World Cup sorted by rankings, plus the four qualifiers from the Group Stage compete in two groups.

Each team plays the other team in its group once with the top two teams in each group progressing on to the Knockout Round.

The draws for the Super 12 Series have been made already and are as follows:

Group 1

Afghanistan
Australia
England
New Zealand
Winner of Group A
Runner Up of Group B

Group 2

Bangladesh
India
Pakistan
South Africa
Winner of Group B
Runner Up of Group A

The Super 12 stage of the tournament is scheduled to start on the 22^nd October and will run until the 6^th November.

Knockout Round

Only the top two teams in each group qualify for the Knockout stage with the winner of Group 1 taking on the Runner Up of Group 2 and the Winner of Group 2 taking on the Runner Up of Group 1.

The two semi finals will be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground and the Adelaide Oval on the 9^th and 10^th November.

The winners of the two semis then go on to contest the final on the 13^th November at Melbourne Cricket Ground.

ICC has announced the match officials for the T20 World Cup 2022.#ICC #T20WorldCup #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/ENpgF82C51
— CricTracker (@Cricketracker) October 4, 2022

Latest Odds To Win The T20 World Cup 2022

Bet365 have current holders and hosts Australia as the 11/4 favourites to win the T20 World Cup on home soil, with India 10/3 and England 7/2.

The odds then drop to Pakistan who are 15/2, South Africa and New Zealand are both 8/1, with West Indies 16/1.

Outside of that the odds drift markedly to Sri Lanka at 22/1 and it is 50/1 bar any of those teams.

The Netherlands and UAE are the rank outsiders at 2000/1 to win the event.

Our Tip – I think England and India both have a solid chance of reaching the final of the tournament, but it is hard to look past Australia as the holders and hosts here and at 11/4, they are a good bet in my view to win.

FAQs

What Is T20 Cricket?

T20 Cricket is a short-overs version of cricket where the emphasis is placed on rapid scoring over the course of 20 overs.

There are a number of slight rule changes to encourage teams to bat more expansively, such as only allowing certain numbers of fielders in certain sections of the field.

This version of the game has proved very popular across the world since it was first played in the early 2000s.

Who Are The T20 World Cup Holders?

Australia are the T20 World Cup holders after they beat New Zealand in the rearranged 2020 tournament in 2021 in the UAE and Oman.

Who Is The Most Successful T20 World Cup Team?

The West Indies are the most successful T20 World Cup team having achieved two wins in the tournament. No other team has won the tournament more than once ahead of the 2022 T20 World Cup.