The ICC T20 World Cup 2021 will begin from Saturday with the match between the two strong teams of Group One, Australia and South Africa. The opening match of the tournament, which starts at 3.30 pm at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, will see both teams looking to get off to a great start, which will provide them with momentum throughout the tournament. Talking about the preparations of both the teams, South Africa have won both their practice matches played against Afghanistan and Pakistan in the past, while Australia won against New Zealand, while they faced defeat against India.
It will be important for both the teams to hit the ground with the right balance as both the teams do not have much experience of playing on UAE pitches. The biggest problem for Australia at the moment is the out of form experienced opener David Warner, who has not had a good IPL season this year. Warner was dismissed for zero in the practice match against New Zealand and one against India, although the good thing is that Glenn Maxwell is in good form. In the practice match against India, he played good innings of 37 runs.
At the same time, having almost all the batsmen and bowlers of South Africa in form can open the way for them to go till the end of the tournament. Captain Temba Bavuma including Aiden Markram, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen and Raisie van der Dussen are playing well. Dussen made all the other teams aware of his potential by scoring an explosive century (101) against Pakistan in the second practice match, although this is not the first time. He has demonstrated his ability many times before this.
However, if we talk about the overall performance of both the teams in the T20 World Cup, both the teams have not been able to win this title till date. Even South Africa has not won any ICC title till date, while Australia has a total of seven ICC titles including five ODI World Cup and two Champions Trophy titles. It is noteworthy that even in the last T20 World Cup played in 2016, the Australian and South African teams could not go beyond the Super 10 stage. However, Australia was the runner-up of the 2010 edition of the T20 World Cup.
