Australia the one to beat

Australia

The defending champions, with a team packed with allrounders, are overwhelming favourites to win the title for the fifth time. They’ve reached the final of each T20 World Cup, except the inaugural tournament in 2009, and lost only one of their five finals, to West Indies in 2016.

They have a strong team that boasts of possibly the fastest woman bowler in the world, Tayla Vlaeminck, and an effective leg-spinner in Georgia Wareham. The world’s No. 1 T20 bowler is an Australian, Megan Schutt, and the team has top batswomen in Beth Mooney, Meg Lanning and Alyssa Healy.

Key Player: Ellyse Perry

The world’s top-ranked T20 allrounder can be a winner with both bat and ball — she hits the ball hard can easily clear the boundary, and chips in with wickets with her handy medium-pace. Now 29, she has been playing for Australia for over 12 years and remains the go-to player with both bat and ball.

England

England won the inaugural T20 World Cup back in 2009, but since then they’ve lost three finals, including in 2018 when they were bowled out for 105 by Australia. They remain the second-best team in the world, as is confirmed by their second rank behind Australia. Over the last 12 months, the Englishwomen have thrashed every team except Australia — their record is 4-1 vs India, 3-0 vs Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and 1-0 against West Indies. Against Australia, the record is 1-3, ie one win and three defeats. In the World Cup, too, they are expected to pose the biggest challenge to Australia.

Key Player: Heather Knight

The captain, is an accomplished top-order batswoman, a handy off-spinner and an experienced leader who apprenticed under Charlotte Edwards for two years. She seems to be hitting top form, with some good innings against Australia and India in their recent tri-series. She led England to the 2018 final and she would be keen to avenge that defeat to Australia.

New Zealand

New Zealand, ranked No. 3 in the world, have not played much T20 cricket over the past 12 months. But their results over the last three years are consistent with their ranking — they’ve thrashed South Africa (5-1), Pakistan (5-0), West Indies (4-0) and India (3-1), but lost to Australia (2-4) and England (0-3).

They could not make the knockout stage of the 2018 edition after they were beaten by both India and Australia. This time they hope that their form players will shine — captain Sophie Devine was the top performer at the WBBL and the Super Smash.

Key Player: Suzie Bates

With 3,195 runs, Suzie Bates is the top run-scorer in women’s T20Is — no one else has gone past 3,000. She is one of the few batswomen to strike a T20I 100, and has an impressive strike rate of 112.06. At over 32 years, she knows that time is running out for her as she chases her — and her country’s — first World Cup title. Her recent form has been good, in both T20I and ODI cricket.