ICC Women's World T20: India to Lock Horns Against New Zealand in Opener

The International Cricket Council (ICC), on Monday (June 25), announced the fresh schedule for the ICC Women’s World T20 2018. However, Windies will hold the showpiece event from 9 to 24 November. India and New Zealand will take on each other in the tournament-opener in Guyana.

On the same day, Australia will take on Pakistan while defending champions Windies will take on the winner of the qualifiers.

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The upcoming tournament holds a significant value as far as women’s cricket is concerned. This is the first time that the women’s tournament is being held as a stand-alone event.

Moreover, ICC will telecast all the games live from Guyana in  St Lucia, Antigua, and Barbuda respectively. This is also the first time that the Decision Review System (DRS) will be used in a coveted ICC World Twenty20 event.

The tournament will see ten teams fighting it out for the trophy. The participating teams are England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka West Indies and two qualifiers.

The ten teams have been divided into two groups of five teams each. Windies are in Group A along with England, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Qualifier 1.

On the other hand,  Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Qualifier 2 will be in Group B.

Bangladesh, Ireland, the Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Thailand, Uganda and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will fight it out for the two remaining spots in the tournament.

India hosted the previous edition of the tournament in 2016 alongside men’s event. That time around, Windies defeated Australia by eight wickets to win the title.

Moreover, ICC Women’s World T20 Tournament Director, Jennifer Nero welcomed all the teams to the West Indies.

“The West Indies is one of the great places in the world for sports, entertainment, and culture…I want to urge the fans to come out and see the best players in the modern game. Women’s cricket is growing at a rapid rate as we saw from last year’s ICC Women’s World Cup in England. And teams are getting stronger. We are committed to playing a major role in the continued growth and development of the sport. We want to invite the cricket world to be part of this exhilarating world-class event on and off the field,” Nero said.

Also, India captain Harmanpreet Kaur also expressed her excitement, saying:

“The announcement of the schedule marks the countdown to this big event and we are all really looking forward to playing in the West Indies”.

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“The ICC Women’s World T20 will be a competitive tournament with some tough league matches early on and no team can take it easy at any stage. Naturally, expectations will be high from our team after our World Cup final appearance last year and we aim to be at our best during the tournament,” Harmanpreet said.