ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier, 2019 – Statistical Preview

The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier is set to kick start on Friday with as many as eight teams in action across three venues in UAE on the first day. A total of 14 teams will be in action for the next two weeks in 51 matches. The top six sides will end up in Australia for the 2020 Men’s T20 World Cup. Ireland’s experience and Scotland’s recent form makes them the favourites to take the top two places in the tournament. However, Netherlands and Canada have good depth in the squad for the T20 format and expected to be in the race to Australia.

All the major stats and facts of the teams and players taking part in the Qualifier tournament:

7 – Namibia has won all the seven matches they played in T20I cricket; the most number of T20Is any team has won without losing one. Their skipper Gerhard Erasmus has led the team in six of those seven matches.

The six matches he captained are the most for any captain without losing even one in this format. Infact, Namibia won 11 out of the 12 International matches they played in 2019. Their only defeat this year came during the ODI Tri-series against the U.S.A. last month.

9 – Papua New Guinea featured in nine T20I matches in 2019 without losing any game. P.N.G won eight of the nine games while another match ended without a result. They will start the tournament on a 6-match winning streak in the T20I format. However, they lost all three T20Is they played in the United Arab Emirates.

6/0 – Canada is also unbeaten in T20Is this year as they won five out of six matches. Another game ended without a result where they were well ahead of DLS par but batted only four overs before the rain intervention in the chase.

The hosts United Arab Emirates are also on an undefeated streak of six T20Is. They won each of their last five T20Is, their longest winning streak in this format.

8.61 – Charles Perchard has the best average and strike rate with the ball in the T20I format. (Min: 20 overs) The Jersey captain has taken 13 wickets from 6 T20I innings at an average of 8.61 and a strike rate of 9.6.

11/9 – Netherlands has lost nine of the 11 T20Is they played since the start of August. The Dutch team won three of their first four T20Is in 2019 but only two in the 12 they played since then.

13/5 – Paul Stirling has scored five of his 13 half-centuries in T20I cricket in 2019 only; the most number fifty-plus scores for any player in 2019 T20Is. He amassed 457 runs in 12 T20I innings at an average of 41.54. Stirling scored only 8 fifties across 51 innings till the end of 2018.

15/2 – Hong Kong has only won two of their last 15 T20I matches. They played four T20Is during the Oman T20 Pentangular series this month and lost each of them by big margins. They have not featured in even one T20I between February 2017 and September 2019.

17y 280d – Collins Obuya’s career span in International cricket for Kenya. He made his debut in an ODI in August 2001 while his most recent international appearance came in a T20I during May this year. He will become the first player to complete 18 years of International cricket for an Associate nation during this tournament.

56.2 – Singapore’s Timothy David has a batting average of 56.2 in the T20I format. He has scored 281 runs in his 6-match T20I career with 40+ scores in last four outings. Across List A games and T20s for Singapore, David amassed 650 runs at an average of 72.22 with help of six fifties. David has crossed 35 runs in each of his last nine innings for Singapore.

76.6 – Tony Ura of P.N.G. is averaging 76.6 from nine T20Is he played this year scoring 378 runs with help of an unbeaten ton and three fifties. No other player has scored more runs at a better average in all T20s in 2019 than Tony Ura.

Ura has a career average of 43.36 in T20Is which is the 3rd best for any player in this format. (Min: 15 innings) Only Virat Kohli (50) and Babar Azam (49.61) have a better average in T20Is than the P.N.G. opener.

158.52 – George Munsey’s batting strike rate of 158.52 in T20I cricket is the 2nd best for any player. (Min: 25 innings) Only Colin Munro is ahead of Munsey with a T20I batting SR of 161.16. Munsey scored 753 runs from 28 innings thus far with an unbeaten hundred and three half-centuries.

588 – Kevin O’Brien is the only player with 500+ runs in the T20I format in 2019. He scored 588 runs from 15 T20Is this year with help of three fifties and Ireland’s first-ever T20I hundred. The record for most T20I runs in a calendar year is held by Shikhar Dhawan with 689 runs from 17 innings in 2018 which could be broken by the Ireland all-rounder.