T20 World Cup: Brad Hogg picks New Zealand and England as favourites to win tournament

Australian spinner Brad Hogg has chosen England and New Zealand as T20 World Cup favourites. The Aussie believes both the teams are the strongest in the T20 format adding that if any team can challenge the two it has to be India. 

England and New Zealand were also finalists in the 2019 ICC Men's ODI World Cup. He believes that both squads are in contention for the trophy. An Indian fan asked the question to Brad Hogg on the social media platform Twitter, to which he replied, “@BLACKCAPS and @englandcricket I favour in the T20 format. There is only one team that on paper can threaten both in India.”

England had won the third edition of the T20 World Cup when defeated Australia in the finale. They recently won their last two T20 series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka. New Zealand comes into the tournament on the back of a 2-3 defeat against Bangladesh. They missed their big players as Tom Latham, Colin de Grandhomme and Scott Kuggeleijn were the only experienced players in the squad. But once their experienced players return to the team, they will be a more confident and strong side.

A few months back, the spinner was asked to pick his four semi-finalists for the mega event. Hogg replied on Twitter by saying, “India, New Zealand, England and West Indies. That is what I have seen into the lead-up. These teams seem to have stronger batting depth.” The West Indies will be the reigning champions, having won the title five years ago. While India, who sent a young team to Sri Lanka, were beaten in the three-match T20 series.

In July, the ICC announced the groups for the tournament. The groups were formed according to team rankings as of March 20, 2021, with Group 1 comprising of England, Australia, South Africa and West Indies. The teams for the Group 2 were India, Pakistan, New Zealand and Afghanistan. Both the groups will be later joined by 2 teams each.

India T20 World Cup: Bradd Hogg comments on the exclusion of Dhawan, Chahal and Kuldeep

A few days ago, Brad Hogg also spoke on the exclusions of Shikhar Dhawan, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. Speaking about Dhawan, he told "Shikhar Dhawan could be a little bit unlucky here, he started to really come off age, he improved his strike-rate for the last couple of months. But I just think that he is a little bit too slow with the way that the T20 format has moved along." as told in his YouTube channel.

Brad Hogg explained the exclusion of the spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. “I’m very surprised with the exclusion of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. The only reason why I think those two particular players are not in this squad is that they find it very hard to bowl into the wicket, they’re more floaty type bowlers and over in the UAE, when things are not turning, when there’s not much assistance in the pitch, you need those spinners who can bowl into the wicket,” Brad Hogg said in his YouTube video. “If it was any place else in the world, one of those players would have been in the squad and it probably would have been Chahal.”

Image: Instagram/@Brad_Hogg