The first match of the ICC World T20 will see the Group B fixture between the New Zealand side and Sri Lanka. The third team in the group is Zimbabwe, who had not participated in the previous edition of the tournament.

Looking at the format of the tournament, either team can afford to lose thing game and still manage to qualify given that the top two sides in every group out of three go through. But given the format of the game itself, none of the side would want to lose it given that Zimbabwe, despite being the weak side that they are, had beaten Australia in the first edition of the tournament in the first round and that had almost caused a big upset in the first round itself.

New Zealand will be coming off a big series at home against Australia, though some of their players like Daniel Vettori, Ross Taylor, Brendum McCullum and Shane Bond did participate in the IPL as well. That series was well fought and the Kiwis managed to hold the strong mighty Aussies off to a decent 1-1 draw.

Much of the credit needs to go to two of their cricketers in this format and each time the pair has played well, the side has also done well. The two are, McCullum and Taylor, both of whom can turn the game around with some big hitting. Both did not have a great IPL as was expected out of them, and while McCullum still managed a half century in the last match against Mumbai, Taylor was dropped for the third-place encounter.

The Sri Lankan side will fine that the conditions will suit them. The tracks will be slower and they possess a battery of spinners who can exploit the conditions to their liking. For one, there is Muthiah Muralitharan, and then, there are the likes of Ajantha Mendis and Suraj Randiv. Randiv did extremely well in the series against India and his newness could tip the favour in his balance.

Having said that, the Sri Lankan batsmen will need to give it their best shot as well. Kumar Sangakkara has had a modest form going for him, and despite Mahela Jayawardene playing in the manner that he has so far, it does look like the rest of the players will also need to buckle up.

Between the two sides, it is hard to make a call as to who the favourites will be, but given that Sri Lanka has reached the final last year and possess the attack to exploit the spinning friendly tracks, they would be where my money would be.

Tag :- Daniel Vettori   ICC World T20   Kumar Sangakkara   Muthiah Muralitharan   New Zealand   Sri Lanka   Suraj Randiv