Group A encapsulates precisely why the ICC Girls’s T20 World Cup 2024 would be the best version of the match ever staged.
With the ten groups evenly break up into two teams, a fiercely aggressive Group A comprises 5 of the highest eight groups within the Girls’s T20I Workforce Rankings.
Here’s a breakdown of the nations who will battle it out to make the highest two and seal development to the semi-finals.
Australia
The best dynasty within the historical past of the ladies’s recreation rolls into one other match because the top-ranked facet.
Australia will goal to elevate the ICC Girls’s T20 World Cup trophy for the fourth time in succession and at ICC world occasions, they’ve received every of their final 20 video games.
This time they are going to be skippered by Alyssa Healy after Meg Lanning’s retirement final 12 months, with the keeper-batter additionally their heaviest T20I run-scorer with 440 up to now 12 months.
A collection defeat to England and losses to South Africa and West Indies put the world on discover – Shelley Nitschke’s facet could have an almighty goal on their backs in UAE.
India
India has a powerful current file on the ICC Girls’s T20 World Cup, having reached at the very least the semi-finals in 2018, 2020 and 2023.
Their hopes of going one higher and successful it for the primary time will rely closely on the highly effective opening partnership of Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma.
The momentum behind girls’s cricket in India continues to develop and with a proficient spin assault, the nationwide group have the entire instruments to excel within the UAE situations.
A shock defeat to Sri Lanka within the ultimate of the Asia Cup will make their Group A conflict compelling viewing, in addition to their highly-anticipated tussle with Australia, to whom they misplaced within the ultimate again in 2020.
New Zealand
Ranked fourth within the Girls’s T20I Workforce Rankings, New Zealand can be motivated to show that they continue to be one of many high sides on the earth.
Regardless of registering two wins on every event, the White Ferns haven’t reached the knockout phases of the ICC Girls’s T20 World Cup since 2016.
They’ve misplaced their final 10 T20I matches too, albeit these defeats have are available robust assignments in opposition to England and Australia.
To show issues round they’ll look to skilled fingers in captain Sophie Devine and Suzie Bates, each enjoying on the ICC Girls’s T20 World Cup for the ninth time.
Pakistan
Pakistan will goal to battle hearth with hearth in Group A as they search to make the knockout phases of this match for the primary time.
With 22-year-old Fatima Sana now main the facet, their squad comprises an attention-grabbing mix of youth and expertise which ought to make hay on spin-friendly surfaces.
Historically cautious within the powerplay, Pakistan just lately posted their highest-ever T20I whole of 181 runs in opposition to South Africa and have loosened the shackles on their top-order batters.
With skilled fingers like Nida Dar, Diana Baig and Muneeba Ali steering the ship, they’ll hope to tug off a couple of upsets.
Sri Lanka
Seventh within the Girls’s T20I Workforce Rankings, Sri Lanka will hope to showcase their current enhancements on the largest stage of all of them.
Chamari Athapaththu’s facet arrive in UAE stuffed with confidence having received the Asia Cup for the primary time, beating India within the ultimate because of an excellent 69 from in-form batter Harshitha Samarawickrama.
Because the final ICC Girls’s T20 World Cup, they’ve additionally overwhelmed New Zealand, England and South Africa for the primary time.
All of this implies hopes can be excessive that they will compete for wins and probably emerge from the group phases for the primary time of their ninth look on the occasion.
