The eighth edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup begins in Australia next Sunday. The qualifiers will be followed by Super 12 action that starts on October 22. The top two teams from each group will progress to the semifinals with the final scheduled for November 13.
Twenty20 cricket has come a long way at the international level since the inaugural World T20 in 2007 when M S Dhoni's India triumphed in South Africa. As cricket fans gear up for nearly a month of non-stop action let's take a look at a few interesting points from the past editions.
Only the West Indies have managed to win the tournament twice – in 2012 in Sri Lanka and in 2016 in India. India, Pakistan (2009), England (2010), Sri Lanka (2014) and Australia (2021) are the other teams to have emerged champions.
No team has won back-to-back titles. That shows how tough it is to be consistent in the shortest format of the game. Likewise, no team has triumphed with an all-win record, again underlining the unpredictable nature of T20.
For all the talk of T20 being a close contest, only two previous finals went to the last over. India edged out Pakistan by five runs in the 2007 final in Johannesburg while Carlos Brathwaite smashed four sixes off the first four balls of the final over bowled by Ben Stokes to stun England at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata in 2016.
The team that chased emerged victorious five times in the final with only India and the West Indies (2012) defending totals successfully in the summit clash.
In fact, the Windies defended 137/6 quite comfortably against the Sri Lankans in Colombo as they won by 36 runs. Sri Lanka's total of 101 is the lowest in a final, while Australia's 173/2 to overhaul New Zealand's 172/4 last year is the highest.
West Indies' ex-batter Marlon Samuels is the lone man to have won the player-of-the-final award twice (2012 & 2016). Indian superstar Virat Kohli is the only person to have bagged the player-of-the-series honour twice (2014 and 2016). Former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi remains the only one to have won both the player-of-the-series (2007) and player-of-the-final (2009) awards.
Daren Sammy is the lone captain to have won the tournament twice, while Dhoni, Younis Khan (2009), Paul Collingwood (2010), Lasith Malinga (2014) and Aaron Finch (2021) too have led their countries to glory.
