Minnows. That’s what associate teams have been called over the years. More often than not, full member nations would blow them away at ICC events. But with each passing year in the 21st century, these so-called ‘weak teams’ have started to challenge the contenders.
The T20 World Cup 2026’s opening match between the Netherlands and Pakistan was one catch away from being an upset. Had Max O’Dowd caught Faheem Ashraf, the Dutch would’ve won. It wasn’t to be. Later in that day, the United States of America (USA) had India 77/6. A Suryakumar Yadav special was what saved India from embarrassment.
Upset alert
There are no ‘small teams’ anymore. Not at ICC events like the T20 World Cup. Aiden Markram, captain of South Africa, realises that. That’s why the Proteas aren’t mucking about before their opening match against Canada at the Narendra Modi Stadium on February 9.
“We’ve seen it even now at the start of this World Cup; there’ve been some close ones and games could have swung either way, or it was on a bit of a knife’s edge. That on its own is actually quite exciting to watch,” Markam told reporters in Ahmedabad.
Unknown opposition
Markram admits that they don’t know much about Canada. That’s because the two teams haven’t yet met in a T20I, and their only international meeting came in the 2003 ODI World Cup.
It isn’t just Markram or South Africa that is unaware of Canada. Most of the cricketing world doesn’t have much knowledge about them. But it’s events like this where Canada can make their mark. Show what they can do. People may have forgotten, but in the T20 World Cup 2024, they’d beaten Ireland. Perhaps they can upset another team this time around.
“We haven’t played them, and we’re not 100% sure what to expect, and that poses a new challenge. When you play teams consistently, you have a pretty good idea of how they approach the game, their plans, the actual players, and their abilities. From our side, we don’t want to put too much emphasis on that. We’d rather focus on our skills, on our plans, and executing well, and we feel if we’re able to do that, we give ourselves a good chance,” Markram said.
Canada’s squad for T20 World Cup 2026
Nicholas Kirton (c), Shreyas Movva, Kaleem Sana, Ansh Patel, Ajayveer Hundal, Jaskaran Singh, Harsh Thaker, Dillon Heyliger, Saad Bin Zafar, Navneet Dhaliwal, Ravinderpal Singh, Shivam Sharma, Kanwarpal Tathgur, Dilpreet Bajwa, Yuvraj Sam
Cricket
ICC-PCB meeting underway in Lahore, decision on IND vs PAK match boycott likely today
