The 27-day ICC World Twenty20 India 2016 begins in Nagpur on 8 March with 19 men’s players set to feature in their sixth straight event, while 29 women’s cricketers will make their fifth successive appearance.
This was confirmed after all the 16 men’s squads and 10 women’s squads were submitted for the tournament, which will be played at eight venues across India with Eden Gardens in Kolkata to host the finals on 3 April.
Veterans Tillakaratne Dilshan and Skipper Lasith Malinga are the only two players from Sri Lanka to have competed in every WT20 tournament to date.
In the men’s event, Bangladesh will field a team, which boasts five players who have played in all the previous five events. They are: Masrafe Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim.
The India and West Indies sides include three players each who have participated in the previous events, which were staged in South Africa, England, West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. These players are: MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh (all India), and Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle and Denesh Ramdin (all West Indies).
Nathan McCullum, Ross Taylor (both New Zealand), AB de Villiers, JP Duminy (both South Africa), Shahid Afridi (Pakistan) and Shane Watson (Australia) are the other players to attend their sixth straight ICC World Twenty20.
Among the women Chamari Atapattu, Eshani Lokusooriya and Udeshika Probodani have participated in the tournament since its inception in 2009.
The West Indies will enter the competition with six players having played in all tournaments to date. These are: Stafanie Taylor, Merissa Aguilleira, Deandra Dottin, Stacy-Ann King, Anisa Mohammed and Shakera Selman.
Pakistan has named five players who have the experience of four previous events. They are: Asmavia Iqbal, Bismah Maroof, Javeria Khan, Nain Abedi and Sana Mir.
England and South Africa have retained four players each from the previous four tournaments, and they are: Charlotte Edwards, Lydia Greenway, Jenny Gunn, Sarah Taylor (all England), and Mignon du Preez, Trisha Chetty, Shabnim Ismail and Dane Van Niekerk (all South Africa).
New Zealand will be fielding three players who have been members of the sides that have played in previous events. These are: Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine, Sara McGlashan
Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami (both India), Alex Blackwell and Ellyse Perry (both Australia) are the other players to attend their fifth successive women’s competition.
In 2018 and 2022, there will be standalone women’s ICC World Twenty20 tournaments, which will be staged in the West Indies and South Africa, respectively.
