The second edition of the International T20 League is set to get underway on January 19 with the opening game scheduled to be played between Sharjah Warriors and Gulf Giants who had won the inaugural edition of the tournament. The match will take place at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in Sharjah and both sides will be keen on starting their campaign on a high with a win. Interestingly, a lot of players featuring in the Big Bash League and SA20 have moved to feature in this competition thanks to the monetary gains.
The Warriors have not yet announced their captain officially but there is every possibility that Tom Kohler-Cadmore will continue to lead them like he did the last season. He will have players like Martin Guptill, Chris Woakes, Johnson Charles among others up his sleeves. As for the Gulf Giants, James Vince is set to lead them even as players like Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Jordan and Chris Lynn will feature for them in this edition. Meanwhile, let us have a look at the pitch report of Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
Sharjah Cricket Stadium Pitch Report
Sharjah Cricket Stadium has small boundaries which makes it a high scoring ground. However, with the surface not that conducive to the batters, the average score batting first here is only 143 runs. However, the highest run-chase at this venue in T20Is has been 215 by Afghanistan against Zimbabwe. With this being the first match of the season, expect the pitch to be decent for batting.
Sharjah Cricket Stadium - T20 Numbers Game
Matches Played - 45
Matches won batting 1st - 25
Matches won batting 2nd - 20
Average 1st inns score - 143
Highest total recorded - 215/6 by AFG vs ZIM
Highest score chased - 179/6 by SL vs AFG
Squads
Gulf Giants Squad: Chris Lynn, James Vince(c), Jordan Cox(w), Gerhard Erasmus, Jamie Overton, Shimron Hetmyer, Richard Gleeson, Carlos Brathwaite, Chris Jordan, Usman Khan, Rehan Ahmed, Aayan Afzal Khan, Zuhaib Zubair, Sanchit Sharma, Jamie Smith, Dominic Drakes, Saurabh Netravalkar
Sharjah Warriors Squad: Martin Guptill, Johnson Charles, Tom Kohler-Cadmore(w), Joe Denly, Daniel Sams, Mark Deyal, James Fuller, Christopher Sole, Qais Ahmad, Chris Woakes, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Muhammad Jawadullah, Nilansh Keswani, Mark Watt, Lewis Gregory
