The 2022 edition of ICC Men's T20 World Cup is all set to get underway on October 16.
Eight teams, divided into two groups, will compete in the qualifying stage while the top two sides from each group will advance to the Super-12.
The four teams will then join Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa in the Super-12, starting October 22.
In the Super-12 round, the teams will battle it out for a place in the semifinals, scheduled to take place on November 9-10.
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With less than a week remaining for the showpiece tournament, former England captain Michael Atherton has labelled hosts Australia as ‘favourites’ and tipped South Africa as ‘dark horses.’
While Australia are the defending T20 World Cup champions having won the coveted title in UAE last year, the Proteas faced a group stage elimination in the 2021 edition due to their inferior run-rate.
“I think it looks a pretty open tournament,” Atherton said on the Sky Sports Cricket podcast. “I know there’s no standout favourite according to the bookies.
“Every side looks to have some weaknesses. I would say Australia on home turf are probably favourites but if you think about the last tournament, although they won it, you wouldn’t say they were across the board the outstanding side. England smashed them in the group stages.
“It looks quite open to me and I wonder if there might be a good case for someone like South Africa to come up from the outside.
“I’m going to take a bit of a flyer and look outside of the top three and go for South Africa. They could be a dark horse and finally break a duck in these events.”
Ex-England cricketer Nasser Hussain, who was also part of the Sky Sports Cricket podcast, also considers Australia a ‘dangerous’ side but he is backing the Jos Buttler-led English side to lift the trophy.
One of the favourites to win the 2021 T20 World Cup, England were knocked out by New Zealand in the semi-final.
“Australia look a very, very strong side,” Hussain said. “They look like they’ve got every base covered and on home turf they’re going to be very dangerous.
“If you look at the odds, Australia are the favourites but England just beat them the other day [in a warm-up match] so I’m going for England.”
The final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 is slated to be held in Melbourne on November 13.
(Sky Sports Cricket podcast inputs)