Intrigue and upsets on the menu as T20 World Cup begins in Australia

Injuries, recoveries, surprising selections, awe-inspiring feats with bat, ball and in the field, on-pitch controversy and off-field scandal: as the world’s elite cricketers have gathered in Australia over the last couple of weeks all of these boxes have been ticked – and the T20 World Cup has not even started.

That changes on Sunday, when the action gets under way in somewhat understated style with a double-header in Geelong, where Namibia play Sri Lanka and then Netherlands face the UAE. Though Sri Lanka are a team on the rise, and recent winners of the Asia Cup, these are not exactly the kind of blockbuster fixtures that will grab the world’s attention, nor are they being played on one of Australia’s legendary grounds.

On Monday, while the second group of the opening phase – which includes West Indies, as well as Scotland, Ireland and Zimbabwe – begins in Tasmania, many cricket fans will be distracted by events in Brisbane, where the eight teams that have automatically qualified for the second round play each other in warm-up matches.

This, though, is the more intriguing group, particularly for British fans. Scotland start against West Indies, the overwhelming favourites, not that the prospect is likely to daunt them. They opened last year’s World Cup by playing the side generally considered the outstanding team in that group, beat Bangladesh and surfed into the Super 12s with a 100% record.

First round

Group A: Sri Lanka, Namibia, Netherlands, UAEGroup B: West Indies, Scotland, Ireland, Zimbabwe

The top two in each round-robin group will progress to the Super 12s; teams in bold qualified automatically, while the remaining four sides came through global qualifiers.

Super 12s

Group 1: Afghanistan, Australia (hosts),