2009 ICC World Twenty20 Betting – Group B Preview

PAKISTAN

Squad: Younus Khan (captain), Salman Butt, Ahmad Shahzad, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal, Fawad Alam, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Yasir Arafat, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Mohammad Amir, Saeed Ajmal, Shahzaib Hasan.

BetUS.com odds: Futures +700; Group -140

Last tournament: Grand final losers to India

Trump player: Shahid Afridi

Last year’s grand finalists are much like India in the fact that they are a team studded with stars. A host of their team have excelled in the IPL and internationally in the Twenty20 matches. They dispatched of Australia in ruthless form earlier this year in their series hosted in Dubai and will easily move through to the Super Eights with England. Look to Misbah-ul-Haq to star with the bat but the real star to keep an eye on is Shahid Afridi. He is dangerous with bat and ball and could be the player of the tournament.

ENGLAND

Squad: Paul Collingwood (captain), James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Andrew Flintoff, James Foster, Robert Key, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Eoin Morgan, Graham Napier, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, Luke Wright.

BetUS.com odds: Futures +900; Group +105

Last tournament: Super Eights

Trump player: Ravi Bopara

There are a lot of things going for England this tournament. Firstly they are hosting the championship, secondly they invented this form of the game and thirdly, well they are hosting the championship. It is hard to see England progressing out of the Super Eights but they will move through their pool. In the 2007 chapter, they were pooled with Australia and Zimbabwe and faced the ignominy of missing the Super Eights on run rate to Zimbabwe after they shocked Australia in the first round. They went through but failed to win a match. This year they should at least beat the Netherlands. Hopefully.

NETHERLANDS

Squad: Jeroen Smits (captain), Peter Borren, Mudassar Buhkari, Tom de Grooth, Maurits Jonkman, Alexei Kervezee, Dirk Nannes, Ruud Nijman, Darron Reekers, Edgar Schiferli, Pieter Seelaar, Eric Szwarczynski, Ryan ten Doeschate, Dan van Bunge, Bas Zuiderent.

BetUS.com odds: Futures +75000; Group +1800

Last tournament: Did not qualify

Trump player: Dirk Nannes

There are minnows and then there is the Netherlands. Fair crack to them for qualifying, where they beat Scotland by five wickets in a semi-final but this is a tournament of the best players and like the World Cup in 2007, they will flounder. Kudos to them for making the tournament.