The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will be played from the 17th of October, with the tournament set to be held in the UAE and Oman. This time around, cricket’s big-hitting spectacle will take place just a few days after the Indian Premier League has completed. Will that mean that the world’s best players could get their eye in ahead of the tournament? Let’s hope so.

But who are some of the key men to watch? Well, we have the best possible Stats Performs cricket information insights team to interrupt down players to keep an eye on once the competition kicks off this weekend.

THE PLAYERS

1. BABAR AZAM – PAKISTAN
   Since debuting in September 2016, Babar Azam has been the mainstay of Pakistan’s T20 batting line-up, scoring 2,204 runs. Third place in the Pakistan run-scoring charts in that time is his current opening partner Mohammad Rizwan, who’s accumulated 959 runs at an incredible average of 59.9. Babar’s consistency (he’s never averaged but thirty-seven in an exceedingly calendar year) at the top of the order has been outstanding and his role in the team has rarely changed, adopting a nearly old-fashioned approach as the appearance to bat deep into the innings. He’s solely batted outside the highest 3 double in fifty-six innings.
   He includes an outstanding average of 46.9 at an ever-improving strike rate of 130.6. His T20I career average is third on the incomparable list (20+ innings) behind Virat Kohli (52.7) and his current opening partner, Rizwan (48.4). He clearly relishes batting with the aggressive Rizwan, and also the try has delivered three 100 partnerships and dovetails fine along.
   In eleven innings in host venue UAE, Azam averages forty-nine however at a reduced strike rate of 116.7. His last innings there was in 2018 and since then, he’s added a lot of power to an already lovely well-rounded game.
   In April earlier this year, he created his career-best score (and solely century thus far) versus South Africa in Centurion, putting up 122 in fifty-nine balls. He smashed fifteen fours and 4 sixes therein the show, it marked the primary time he’d hit over 3 sixes in an innings.
2. DEVON CONWAY – NEW ZEALAND
   New Zealand comes in the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup driven by defeat after failing at the penultimate stage of the 2016 edition. They’ll be wanting to go one further and reach the tournament final for the first time in their history. The Black Caps boast one among the most embellished T20I batters in history – Martin Guptill – however, it’ll be a more recent face to the squad who might hold the key to New Zealand’s fortunes.
   Devon Conway has taken to the international stage like few before him, with a look at double-century and an ODI century to his name already despite having played only 3 games in every format to this point. It’s his type in the shortest of the 3 formats that are the most fun, though, along with his 14-game career in T20Is already put him heading in the right direction to be one among the Black Cap’s most unforgettable players.
   Devon Conway includes a T20I batting average of 59.1 from his one innings to this point in the format. It’s the best batting average of any player in the history of the format for New Zealand (men or women) and is the highest of any player to possess batted over 5 innings for any men’s team. He doesn’t waste time, either, as he’s one among only 3 players in the history of the format with a batting average of 50+ and a strike rate of 150+ (together with Leslie Dunbar and Mirza Ahsan) among those to have played in more than 5 innings.
   The danger that Conway poses to his opposition gets exponentially higher the later he’s allowed to remain at the crease further. Since he made his T20I debut on November twenty-seven 2020, he has had a batting strike rate of 241.8 in the death overs (overs seventeen to 20). Among all players from Test-playing nations to have faced 25+ balls in time, no different player includes a higher evaluation rate.
3. JOSH INGLIS – AUSTRALIA
   Josh Inglis has emerged as a force to be reckoned with in T20 cricket, along with his promising form puttIng him right in the frame to be a surprise inclusion over his suffered teammates in Australia’s beginning XI for the T20 World Cup.
   The uncrowned wicketkeeper-batter created quite an impact in the 2021 Vitality Blast for Leicestershire, scoring the most runs (531) of any player in England’s domestic T20 competition. Inglis scored a boundary once every 3.5 balls faced, the third most frequent of any player (min. six innings) within the campaign (behind Alex Hales – three.2 and can Jacks – three.4). Therein time, he hit sixty-three fours, a tournament-high and nearly double the tally of his next best associate (Arron Lilley – 32).
   Back home in Australia’s big Bash League, Inglis has affected along with his ability to rotate the strike and not get stalled at the crease, a vitally important ability in the fast world of T20 cricket. In the 2020-21-barrel Inglis logged a batting dot-ball proportion of simply 26.8%. Amongst players to face a minimum of sixty balls within the most up-to-date edition solely Jordan Silk (23.9%) had a much better rate.
4. LIAM LIVINGSTONE – ENGLAND
   Liam Livingstone made his European country T20 debut back in June 2017 against South Africa. Fast forward specifically four years and he was notching up simply a 3rd look within the format. Despite his prolonged hiatus, the Lancashire all rounder has the potential to be a key player for one among the favorites to win the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
   Where he lacks international expertise, Livingstone makes up for it with expertise in T20 franchise cricket, having appeared in every of the IPL, Blast, Big Bash, PSL, and South African Mzansi Super League. Across twenty-eight matches for state capital Scorchers within the huge Bash League, the 28-year-old has scored 851 runs at a mean of thirty.4 and strike rate of 138. Therein time, he has smashed fifty-five sixes – solely 2 players have scored a lot within the entire history of the barrel for the state capital.
   Clearing the ropes is certainly a specialty of Livingstone, and it’s onerous to devalue the importance of that ability in T20 cricket. Against Pakistan, in July of this year, he took his likelihood to spotlight this ability once crushing 9 sixes in one inning.
   In doing this he became simply the third batter to hit a men’s T20I century for England, smashing 103 runs from a mere forty-three balls faced, along with his knock the joint-seventh quickest a hundred in men’s T20Is (42 balls).
5. MUSTAFIZUR RAHMAN – BANGLADESH
   Bangladesh head into this World Cup in a concert of the shape groups in men’s T20I cricket, following succeeding home series wins over Australia and New Zealand. Over the last two-year period, only India, England, and Pakistan have enjoyed a much better win proportion during this format.
   Spearheading the People’s Republic of Bangladesh attack is left-arm seamer Mustafizur Rahman. The 26-year-old was the Tigers’ joint-leading wicket-taker against New Zealand last month, however, it had been in his side’s 4-1 pounding of Australia earlier this summer wherever his performances were a category apart.
   Three of Bangladesh’s victories came in situations wherever they with success defended low totals on slow pitches and across the series, Mustafizur recorded an ungenerous economy rate of three.53, assent solely 3 boundaries across 5 innings. His finest performance came within the series-clinching finish in Mirpur, wherever he bowled four overs for simply 9 runs, as Australia fell ten runs short chasing 128.
6. NICHOLAS POORAN – WEST INDIES
   With an extremely low grip and huddled stance, Nicholas Pooran packs a punch bigger than his little stature would recommend. He enters the competition as vice-captain and can be crucial to the West Indies’ hopes of going deep within the tournament.
   The left-hander has created his name across multiple franchise tournaments like the IPL, CPL, and PSL and recently had a stint in England with Yorkshire. Pooran proclaimed himself on the international stage in 2018 once he hit a twenty-four-ball century against India.
   The Trinidadian specializes in clearing the rope. Despite batting within the middle order, he hit the second-highest range of sixes within the CPL 2021 (25) – solely opener Even Lewis hit a lot of (38). His most spectacular performance within the tournament came on 9-11 once he accumulated seventy-five runs from simply thirty-nine balls against the Jamaica Tallawahs.
   Recent history suggests Pooran will create runs within the Middle East. He had a stellar 2020 IPL, notching up 353 runs at a strike rate of a hundred and seventy and hit the foremost sixes of any overseas player (25). Within the UAE earlier this year, Pooran took George Garton for thirty-two off AN over within the national capital T10, on his thanks to a mammoth eighty-nine from twenty-six balls.
   Like several short players, Pooran is phenomenal on the pull and is additionally prolific down the bottom. Expect to ascertain opponents’ exploitation variations in pace and bowling wide outside off-stump as something short or on his pads is probably going to travel the space.
   When the West Indies are in the field Pooran is probably going to be donning the wicket-keeping gloves. Athletic and effervescent within the field, he’s one among the safest try of hands within the Caribbean team.
   But it’s with the bat wherever the Windies can want him most, and if he gets in, expect him to travel huge quickly.
7. PAUL STIRLING – IRELAND
   Ireland secured their qualification for the 2021 T20 World Cup by topping their cluster at the qualifying event within the UAE in 2019. The leading run-scorer therein 14-team tournament was the veteran Paul Stirling and he’s bound to be a key issue if the lads in inexperienced are to create it out of the preliminary stage and into the Super twelve-stage with the large boys.
   With franchise expertise around the globe and over eighty-five appearances played in T20 cricket, he won’t be bothered by what he comes up against within the UAE/Oman within the coming back weeks. The 31-year-old is Ireland’s high run-scorer within the format and is within the high 5 scorers from any nation within the twenty-over game.
   Over a 3rd (32) of the eighty-nine T20I matches that Stirling has played are available in the UAE (25) or Muscat and Oman (7). He has played a lot more often within the UAE than he has in play. If native information and knowledge can count for all the world then he’s bound to be a hit within the 2021 T20 World Cup. Solely Mohammad Shahzad has scored a lot more runs than him within the country in men’s T20I cricket and with a mean over forty he is over a match for any bowler he faces.
   Ireland plays Sri Lanka, the Netherlands, and Namibia within the early cluster stage of the 2021 World Cup. It’ll be the tenth time Stirling has faced the Dutch, though he is wanting to try to be higher than his current average of eighteen.9 against them. Meanwhile, he has Janus-faced Namibia only once (25 runs) and can be bobbing up against the country for the primary time.
   Ireland has picked up 3 T20 World Cup wins before, beating Zimbabwe and also the UAE in 2014 further than Bangladesh in 2009. Stirling picked up the Player of the Match award in their convincing Zimbabwe because of evaluation sixty runs from simply thirty-four balls Janus-faced further as bowling a good four overs for simply twenty-four runs. If he will recreate that type, then he’s bound to be a star all over again during this edition of the tournament.