Irfan Pathan feels T20 World Cup will be played in two phases unlike previous editions

Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has said that the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 will be played in two phases as compared to their previous editions of the tournament. The ninth edition of the World Cup is all set to begin on June 1 and will be jointly hosted by the US and West Indies. The Group stage of the tournament will see matches taking place in both the US and West Indies simultaneously.

However, from the Super 8 stage onwards, the tournament will entirely shift to the West Indies. Hence, Pathan feels that the teams will need to be prepared for both types of surfaces and hence will have to alter their team combination as per the changes in the pitches.

“The previous world cups had set pattern. But, here in this World Cup there will be different pitches in West Indies and different pitches in America. So you need to prepare to play this World Cup in two phases. As a team, it’s very important and I think what we’ve seen with the Indian team there are a lot of spinners. They will have that kind of phase really covered up. But every team need to prepare this World Cup in two phases,” said Irfan Pathan on ESPNCricinfo T20 Rendezvous.

Meanwhile, former Australia cricketer Matthew Hayden feels that the upcoming tournament will be a high-scoring one like the recently concluded Indian Premier League 2024.

“It’s going to be quite a big-scoring T20 World Cup. Especially, on the back of what we have seen. We cannot underestimate what IPL cricket does to advance the modern T20 game,” said Hayden.

IPL 2024 had eight 250+ scores

Notably, the recent season of the IPL saw teams surpassing the 250-run mark for fun as a total of eight such scores were recorded during the T20 extravaganza. However, during the IPL teams had the luxury of batting with more freedom due to the ‘Impact player rule’ which isn’t the case in the upcoming World Cup.

Hosts West Indies have given a glimpse of the brand of cricket they’re going to play scoring a massive 257 against Australia in their warm-up fixture in Trinidad. Earlier, Australia also chased down the target of 120 against Namibia in just ten overs. Hence, the fans are excited about the upcoming event eagerly anticipating some high scores during the course of the tournament which gets underway with a game between the US and Canada at Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas.