The Twenty20 World Cup is set to begin on Saturday, with tournament co-hosts the United States taking on Canada in Dallas. The T20 Global Championship has moved to a 20-team format, giving associate or lower-ranked nations a chance at the highest stage while keeping the usual favorites in the hunt for the title.
Most of cricket’s biggest stars are among the more than 250 players in the tournament co-hosted by the United States and the Caribbean.
Here are five players, existing or emerging stars, to watch:
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Phil Salt
Age: 27
Team: England
T20 World Cup experience: 2022 (champions)
About: Salt caught the eye on his T20 series debut in January 2022. He scored at a strike rate of 193.54 against the West Indies and then repeated his performance when England returned to the Caribbean in December last year . He scored 185.95 in five T20s, also including back-to-back hundreds. He replaces Alex Hales at the top of England’s T20 order – a tall order, especially as Hales and captain Jos Buttler have helped England pave the way to the title in 2022.
That victory in Australia meant that England held the two major limited-overs trophies in world cricket for over a year. That ended when England surrendered the 50-man World Cup title last year when Australia defeated hosts India in the final. Salt could help boost England given his current form. He scored 435 runs in 12 games for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2024 Indian Premier League, helping set up KKR’s third title run.
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Jasprit Bumrah
Age: 30
Team: India
T20 World Cup experience: 2016 (semi-finals) and 2021 (second round)
About: Since his debut in 2016, Bumrah has become the best T20 bowler in the world. Despite his quick pace, he was unable to help win the title his country desperately wants – India last won the T20 World Cup in 2007. He also missed the 2022 edition due to injury.
Age is still on Bumrah’s side, and this time he brings form and fitness to the tournament. He took 20 wickets in 12 games at an economy of 6.48 and an average of 16.80 in the recent Indian Premier League season. Fully demonstrated, Bumrah’s bowling prowess in this format makes him the most potent pace threat in T20 internationals. But he can’t do it alone, as was evident when Mumbai Indians came last in the IPL.
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Heinrich Klaasen
Age: 32
Team: South Africa
T20 World Cup Experience: 2021 (Second Round) & 2022 (Second Round)
About: Klaasen’s big batting can be compared to that of India’s Suryakumar Yadav, who is number 1 in the T20 batting rankings. It is not so much in the official rankings but in the unpredictable yet fiery style that these two batsmen find closeness. Yadav is extravagant in his shot selection while Klaasen is more orthodox but makes up for it with power.
Klaasen is particularly proficient against spin – with a strike rate of 158.93 – and rises to 196.42 at the end of a team’s innings against spin and pace. In the 2024 IPL, he stated this by hitting the spinners at 181.36. And with spin expected to be the key factor in the second phase of the tournament, Klaasen’s contributions could help South Africa end their World Cup drought.
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Rachin Ravindra
Age: 24
Team: New Zealand
T20 World Cup experience: None
About: The young batsman won the 2023 World Cup in the 50-over format. Ravindra, whose first name is a mix of India’s two batting legends Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, scored 578 runs in 10 matches to boost New Zealand’s attack in the semi-finals. He made a century in his World Cup debut against defending champions England and looked comfortable in high-pressure situations.
He is also a handy left-arm spinner, which helped New Zealand balance their playing XI in India and will once again be valuable in the even shorter format in the Caribbean.
Ravindra added to his T20 experience with the Chennai Super Kings in the recent IPL, scoring 222 runs at a strike rate of 160.86), and the Black Caps will hope to repeat that performance in the World Cup.
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Nicholas Pooran
Age: 28
Team: West Indies
T20 World Cup Experience: 2021 (Second Round) & 2022 (First Round)
About: From Indian Premier League to Big Bash, SA20 to ILT20, Hundred, PSL, UAE T10, Bangladesh Premier League and of course the Caribbean Premier League, Pooran is now the leading export West Indies T20. He has taken on the mantle of the likes of Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo and carved out a place for himself in franchise leagues across the world.
Pooran is coming off a few months of T20 cricket – he led MI Emirates to the ILT20 title in February and showed good batting form for the Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2024. He will be West Indies’ main batsman in their T20 World. Cup – tournament where the Caribbean team wants to make up for its elimination in the first round of the T20 in 2022 and the loss of the 2023 ODI World Cup.
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