New Zealand batter Ross Taylor will be seen in a new role after he was not named in New Zealand’s 15-member squad for the tournament, as he is set to mentor T20 World Cup debutants Papua New Guinea in the multi-team tournament, which gets underway from October 17 in Oman. The qualifiers are set to run until October 22, with the opening fixture scheduled between hosts Oman and PNG.
The last time Taylor played the shortest format was November 2020, when the Kiwis hosted West Indies. Missing out on getting a spot in the World Cup squad means the PNG have Taylor’s experience of 102 T20Is to take advantage of and learn from as they embark on a historic World Cup journey.
After closely missing out on opportunities of making it into the previous two editions – 2014 and 2016 – of the T20 World Cup, PNG topped their group in the 2019 qualifiers to ensure a qualification berth for the 2021 edition.
Having passed those hurdles, the last that remain for Assad Vala’s men to find themselves competing with the premier nations in Super12 is the First Round of the T20 World Cup, where they are grouped alongside Bangladesh, Scotland and Oman. The other group comprises of Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands and Namibia.
Each team will face the other team of their respective groups once and the top two from each group will qualify for the Super12s, which get underway from October 23.
Ahead of the tournament, PNG skipper Vala remains confident about his team’s qualification. “It is really a proud moment for me and the boys. It has been a long time coming. We have come so close on so many occasions. We are a couple of days away from playing our first World Cup match.”
“We want to play to the best of our abilities. We want to make it to the second round to test ourselves against the best teams in cricket. We don’t want this World Cup to be a one-off. We want to keep improving. We want to get the exposure and knowledge against the best teams.”
Papua New Guinea T20 World Cup 2021 Squad: Tony Ura, Assad Vala(c), Lega Siaka, Charles Amini, Sese Bau, Kiplin Doriga(w), Norman Vanua, Chad Soper, Jason Kila, Damien Ravu, Nosaina Pokana, Kabua Morea, Hiri Hiri, Gaudi Toka, Simon Atai.
from CricTracker https://ift.tt/3jcEgQT
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