Women’s T20 World Cup: When is it on and do England have a chance?
Friday sees the beginning of the eighth Women’s T20 World Cup and five-time champions Australia are the overwhelming favourites.
The 10 teams will compete for the trophy across this month in South Africa. Here’s what you need to know about the competition.
Where is it?
This year the T20 World Cup will take place in South Africa for the first time. The tournament starts on 10 February and concludes 16 days later.
Eastern Cape Province city Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth, Paarl and Cape Town are the three host cities.
Cape Town will stage the semi-finals and final between 23 and 26 of this month but is sharing the round robin matches with the other two venues.
England will play group matches in all three cities, with two of their four games in Paarl.
Hosts South Africa will open the show on Friday against Sri Lanka in Cape Town before playing games in Paarl, Gqeberha and then Cape Town once again.
Which T20 sides are involved?
The eighth edition of the T20 World Cup will see two groups – A and B – of five teams each.
Group A consists of hot favourites Australia and hosts South Africa, as well as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and New Zealand.
The second group – B – contains England and Ireland, as well as Pakistan, India and the West Indies.
The two groups are evenly split based on the world rankings, with Group A housing the first, third, fifth, eighth and ninth ranked sides and Group B containing the second, fourth, sixth, seventh and 10th ranked sides.
What are the chances?
Australia are odds-on favourites with bookmakers at 4/9, ahead of England at 4/1. India are third favourites at 9/2 with New Zealand (9/1) and South Africa (25/1) making up the top five.
Australia were hosts last time out in 2020 and won the tournament, something no other host had done since England’s win in the inaugural competition in 2009.
England were cruelly dumped out of the last T20 World Cup due to rain in the semi-finals – India advanced due to their better record in the group stages.
Jon Lewis’s side have beaten the West Indies in eight consecutive limited-overs matches since the back end of last year and they have looked strong in the warm-ups too.
There is a real hope that England can earn their first T20 World Cup title since 2009 but they’ll more than likely have to overcome Australia at some point in order to do so.
When do England play?
England begin their campaign on Saturday against the West Indies in Paarl (1pm, Sky Sports Cricket) before facing Ireland at the same venue on Monday (11am, Sky Sports Cricket).
Their toughest group game, against India, takes place five days later in Gqeberha (1pm, Sky Sports Cricket) before they round off the first phase of the World Cup against Pakistan in Cape Town on 21 February (1pm, Sky Sports Cricket).
The semi-finals and final are on 23, 24 and 26 of February.
England T20 squad
Heather Knight (captain), Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Kate Cross, Freya Davies, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Sarah Glenn, Amy Jones, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Katherine Sciver-Brunt, Lauren Winfield-Hill, Danni Wyatt. Travelling reserves: Issy Wong, Danielle Gibson.