T20 World Cup 2024: Canada squad for the tournament announced

Minnows Canada have announced their final 15-man squad for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and West Indies from June onwards.

It will be Canada's first appearance at an ICC T20 World Cup edition and first appearance at any official ICC competition since 2011. The last time the nation played in an international event was during the 50-over Cricket World Cup 2011 in India. The Canadians had exited the tournament from the group stages itself.

Canada's most successful run in international cricket came from 2003-2011 when they played 3 ODI World Cups back-to-back. The 2003 edition in South Africa was the first ever ICC event they had played while the 2011 edition in India remains as their last. With this year's T20 WC edition being a 20-team affair, the Canadians received qualification after an easy qualifying round.

Canada's squad composition for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024

The Canadian selection committee has named a very aged and experienced squad for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and the West Indies. They have named 37-year-old Saad Bin Zafar as the captain of the team. Bin Zafar is a player who holds the record of being the all-time highest wicket-taker in Canada since his debut.

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Zafar has scalped 43 wickets from 38 matches for the Canadian team from 2019-2024. Other than him in the bowling line-up, Canada have their 2nd, 3rd, and 5th highest wicket-takers in the team.

Right-arm medium-fast bowler Dillon Heyliger is the second-best T20 bowler for Canada with 39 wickets. Heyliger will find his long-time bowling partner - Kaleem Sana, a left-arm seamer who has 27 wickets in T20 cricket with Nikhil Dutta with 24 wickets is also in the squad.

In the batting line-up, Canada have all of their 4 highest scoring batters in the shortest format of the game. Leading from the front will be Navneet Dhaliwal who is the highest scorer with 870 runs at an average of 36.25.

Aaron Johnson, who has scored 713 runs will be joined by Ravinderpal Singh who has scored 589 runs from 2019 to 2022. Rayyankhan Pathan, a batting all-rounder is also in the squad. Jeremy Gordon, Pargat Singh, Nicholas Kirton, Junaid Siddiqui, Dilpreet Bajwa, Shreyas Movva, and Rishiv Joshi will also be making their debuts at the ICC T20 World Cup.

Canada's squad for the T20 World Cup 2024

Saad Bin Zafar (C), Aaron Johnson, Ravinderpal Singh, Navneet Dhaliwal, Kaleem Sana, Dilon Heyliger, Jeremy Gordon, Nikhil Dutta, Pargat Singh, Nicholas Kirton, Rayyankhan Pathan, Junaid Siddiqui, Dilpreet Bajwa, Shreyas Movva and Rishiv Joshi

Team management

Head Coach: Pubudu Dassanayake, Team Manager: Alphonso Franco, Asst. Manager: Gurpdeep Klair, Bowling Coach: Khurran Chohan, Batting coach: Rizwan Cheema, Physiotherapist: Dr Ali Hadi, Trainer: Minalkumar Patel, Team Doctor: Dr. Sandeep Goud, Media Manager: Vivek Jacob, Analyst: Shah Zafar and Masseus: Tejash Patel