ICC WC T20 2016 Fantasy Guru Tips: Uncharted 'associate' waters
The Phase 1 fixtures are in a way that you really can’t stock up substitutions and hope to get points off them. The only option is to keep replacing players, at least most of them, and hope they get you the returns, so don’t be tricked into believing you can play the waiting game.
Also read: ICC T20 World Cup 2016 Schedule
General rule for Phase 1: Don’t pile substitutions up.
I have been receiving feedbacks about how the scoring system is skewed towards bowlers. I believe so too. But picking bowlers in T20s is a huge risk. There are a lot of limiting factors for them, and even the best ones could easily return nothing. So it really comes down to whether or not you are prepared to take that chance. I don’t see an issue with a scoring system favouring bowlers.
Zimbabwe vs Hong Kong
Captain – Hamilton Masakadza
The newly appointed Zimbabwean captain Hamilton Masakadza has T20 international scores of 33, 63, 79, 30, 20, 93* in his last 6 matches, against Afghanistan and Bangladesh, two of the best bowling attacks in the first phase of the competition. That leaves me with no option but to get him in.
Not to mention the 32-year-old right-hander followed those up with domestic T20 scores of 83*, 162*, 66 and the most recent match-winning 68* against Ireland in their second and last warm-up fixture, at Dharamsala.
Captain him.
My next pick would be Richard Mutumbami. The wicketkeeper-batsman is in form (scores of 29, 50*, 19, 40, 32 in the last five T20 innings suggest that), bats at No.3 and gives you wicketkeeping points as well. Since you can have more than one glovesman in the side, I don’t see anything that stops me from getting him into my team.
With Neville Madziva and Luke Jongwe unavailable, Tinashe Panyangara would be the team’s go-to bowler both with the new ball and at the death. The medium pacer bowling to a susceptible Hong Kong opening pair whose combined last 5 innings scores don’t cross a total of 150 is too tempting to ignore. His recent form has been pretty good too, with two 3-fors in the 4-match T20 series against Bangladesh.
Both Sikandar Raza and Sean Williams have been in woeful touch of late. But leaving both of them out could turn out to be a massive goof-up, thanks to their all-round skills.
Williams in last 5 matches: 8, 10, 9, 7, 32 and 1 wicket in total.
Raza: 23, 1, 2, 7, 6 and 4 wickets in total. Raza didn’t play any of the warm-up matches as well.
I will go with Williams here as he bats two positions higher (sometimes three) – at No.5 – and is more certain to bowl his overs.
The only Hong Kong player who interests me is Mark Chapman – arguably their best batsman. He bowls left-arm spin as well. Enough in there to warrant a chance.
Afghanistan vs Scotland
Captain – Mohammad Shahzad
Frighteningly explosive and amazingly consistent for his style of batting, Afghanistan’s Mohammad Shahzad – with 12 half-centuries and 1 century in 62 matches - would be my other wicketkeeper in the side. Rest of the side’s top 5 are not compelling enough.
That takes me to off-spinning all-rounder Mohammad Nabi, whose demotion to No.6 has resulted in him not being as effective as he can be, but if it’s his day and you don’t have him, nothing can save you. Too big a risk to gamble on.
Dawlat Zadran, with his death bowling and long handle wielding skills, would be my third and final pick from the Asghar Stanikzai-led side.
Scotland have an exciting batting line-up, but Afghanistan’s bowling unit is likely to be too strong for them. Leg-spin, off-spin, SLA, pace, swing, reverse – you name it, and you will see some Afghanistan player rising his hand offering that particular option.