Battle of the underdogs gets things underway

Oman and Papua New Guinea will kickstart the T20 World Cup 2021 in Muscat at 4:00pm (Bangladesh standard time), with an aim to make it to the Super 12 stage.

Oman is hosting this first leg of the tournament and hence it has a slight advantage over all other teams. Over the years, Oman have built a solid pool of players who have consistently beaten allies across the globe.

While they go as strong favourites in this match, Papua New Guinea will also be hoping to cause a flutter or two.

The conditions at the Al Amerat Cricket Ground are expected to be good for cricket, both weather-wise and the pitch. There was nice amount of pace and carry in the surface when Oman played Sri Lanka in a warm-up match just a few days ago. That is not likely to change and we can expect more of the same in this match. A total of around 170 is quite easily on the cards especially if Oman bat first.

While Oman have lost their warm-up matches against Sri Lanka, they were indicative of the kind of challenge they would face all other teams. With Bangladesh and Scotland in the same group, qualifying for Super-12 for Oman is a difficult task but not an impossible one.

Zeeshan Maqsood is going to lead the bowling lineup with the support of Fayaz Butt and Kalimullah. Oman don not have the strongest bowling attack, but have managed fight against Sri Lanka in both matches.

Jatinder Singh, Aaqib Ilyas and Khurram Nawaz are the batsmen to watch. There isn't much quality in the batting line-up, but almost everyone is capable of swinging the bat and chipping in if needed.

PNG, on the other hand, may have qualified for the first leg of the T20 World Cup but it is going to be very difficult for them to win a single match in the Super-12 stage. They played two matches in the lead-up: one against Namibia and the other against Scotland, losing both matches heavily. The fact that they didn't play any other cricket in 2021 and none in 2020 would count against PNG.

PNG don't have the kind of quality or experience that other teams have in this tournament. Kiplin Dorigia and Asad Wala are the two batsmen to keep an eye on while Jason Killa and Damien Ravu can create some problems for Oman with the ball.