World’s best twenty20 cricketers prepare for a Sri Lankan party

All 12 men’s squads for the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012 have now been confirmed with the very best players in the world getting ready for the big event, which gets underway in Sri Lanka next month.

 Defending champion England will be led by Stuart Broad and features a strong line-up that includes, eight players, including the captain himself, who were part of England’s ICC World Twenty20 2010 winning side in the West Indies.

Michael Lumb, Craig Kieswetter, Eoin Morgan, Luke Wright, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann and Ravi Bopara all featured in the Caribbean while the side has some new burgeoning talents in the form of Alex Hales, Danny Briggs, Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler amongst others.

 Incidentally, Swann tops the Reliance ICC T20I Player Rankings for Bowlers while Morgan tops the Reliance ICC T20I Player Rankings for batsmen.

 One side that will be eager to succeed in the tournament will be host Sri Lanka, led by the ever-talented Mahela Jayawardena. The side, to be based in Hambantota for its two group stage matches, includes 2009 finalist and then captain, Kumar Sangakkara, all-rounder Angelo Mathews, big-hitting Tillakaratne Dilshan, and the pace and spin combination of Lasith Malinga and Ajantha Mendis. No doubt these star cricketers will be keen to produce performances which their home crowd can remember for a very long time.

 India, champion of the ICC World Twenty20 2007, will be travelling to the event with a mixture of youth and experience. The side is once again led by wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni and is not short on thrilling players in the form of Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Virender Sehag and all-rounder Yuvraj Singh.

The two teams that qualified for the event, Ireland and Afghanistan, will be once again anxious to show the world that they are not in Sri Lanka simply to make up the numbers. Having both featured in the ICC WT20 2010, the Afghans find themselves up against current holders England along with India in Group A - a tough group by anyone’s standards.

 William Porterfield’s Ireland will want to reproduce the sort of form it had when it beat England in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in Bengaluru last year but they have a tough battle in Group B with 2010 runners-up Australia and West Indies.

 The action gets underway in Hambantota on 18 September with the final taking place at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on 7 October. Pallekele is the other venue for the men’s event with the first round matches in the women’s tournament taking place in Galle.

 All the men’s squads are listed below. The women’s squads will be announced in due course.

 For more information about the ICC World Twenty20 2012, go to www.icc-cricket.com.

 Men’s squads

 Afghanistan: Nawroz Mangal (captain), Dawlat Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Hamid Hassan, Izzatullah Dawlatzai, Karim Sadeq, Mohammad Jawed Ahmadi, Mohd Nasim Baras, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammad Shahzad, Mohammad Asghar Stanikzai, , Najibullah Zadran, Samiullah Shinwari, Shafiqullah Shafaq, Shapur Zadran.

 Australia: George Bailey (captain), Daniel Christian, Pat Cummins, Xavier Doherty, Ben Hilfenhaus, Brad Hogg, David Hussey, Michael Hussey, Glenn Maxwell, Clint McKay, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Shane Watson, Cameron White.

 Bangladesh: Mushfiqur Rahim (captain), Abdur Razzak, Abul Hasan, Elias Sunny, Farhad Raza, Jahurul Islam, Junaid Siddique, Mahmudullah, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mohammad Ashraful, Nasir Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Shakib-Al-Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Zia-ur-Rahman.

 England: Stuart Broad (captain), Jonny Bairstow, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Craig Kieswetter, Michael Lumb, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Graeme Swann, Luke Wright.

 India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Ravichandran Ashwin, Lakshmipathi Balaji, Piyush Chawla, Ashoke Dinda, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Yuvraj Singh.

Ireland: William Porterfield (captain), Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Trent Johnston, Nigel Jones, Ed Joyce, Tim Murtagh, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Boyd Rankin, Max Sorensen, Paul Stirling, Stuart Thompson, Andrew White, Gary Wilson.

 New Zealand: Ross Taylor (captain), Doug Bracewell, James Franklin, Martin Guptill, Ronnie Hira, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Adam Milne, Rob Nicol, Jacob Oram, Tim Southee, Daniel Vettori, BJ Watling, Kane Williamson.

 Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez (captain), Abdul Razzaq, Asad Shafiq, Imran Nazir, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Sami, Nasir Jamshed, Raza Hasan, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Yasir Arafat.

 South Africa: AB de Villiers (captain), Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Johan Botha, Jean-Paul Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Jacques Kallis, Richard Levi, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Justin Ontong, Wayne Parnell, Robin Pietersen, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

 Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardena (captain), Dinesh Chandimal, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Akila Dananjaya, Shaminda Eranga, Rangana Herath, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis, Jeewan Mendis, Dilshan Munaweera, Thisara Perera, Kumar Sangakkara, Lahiru Thirimanna.

 West Indies: Darren Sammy (captain), Dwayne Bravo, Samuel Badree, Darren Bravo, Johnson Charles, Fidel Edwards, Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith.

 Zimbabwe: Brendan Taylor (captain), Elton Chigumbura, Graeme Cremer, Craig Ervine, Kyle Jarvis, Hamilton Masakadza, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Chris Mpofu, Forster Mutizwa, Richard Muzhange, Ray Price, Vusi Sibanda, Prosper Utseya, Brian Vitori, Malcolm Waller.