T20 World Cup 2022 will kick off on October 16 in Australia. Similar to last year, the tournament will start with a preliminary qualifying round, and then the Super 12 stage will begin on October 22. The final will be played at the MCG on November 13, with Sydney and Adelaide hosting the two semifinals.
The squads of all 16 teams have been announced, although changes to the squads can be made until 9th October.
There were a few surprises in the squads announced by the selectors. Among those surprises, there were a few players who have not played international cricket for more than 2 years but still managed to find a place in the 15-man squad based on their recent form in T20 leagues.
Here are 3 players who hadn’t played a T20I for more than 2 years but got a place in the T20 World Cup 2022 squad:
Tim David
Tim David had been making huge waves in the T20 circuit over the past three years. A globetrotter, the Singapore-born hard-hitting batsman had already played more than 120 T20 matches before he was named in Australia’s T20 World Cup 2022 squad – having featured in 14 T20Is for Singapore and uncapped for Australia..
He made his Australia debut recently against India, and in the third T20I in Hyderabad, David smashed 54 runs off 27 balls. Before that, in the IPL 2022, David scored 186 runs in 8 innings at a strike rate of 216.
David had played 14 T20Is for his birth country, Singapore, in 2019 and 2020, in which he scored 558 runs at 46 and strike rate of 158. In fact, in his last two knocks for Singapore, Tim David thumped 92* and 58. But, life had other plans for him as he became a destructive T20 force to be reckoned with and had the qualification to play for Australia.
Alex Hales
Swashbuckling England opener Alex Hales spent three years in the wilderness away from international cricket after being dropped from the England side on the eve of the 2019 World Cup after he had failed two tests for recreational drugs ahead of the 2019 WC at home.
And even though, Hales plundered runs in the T20 leagues around the world in these three years, Eoin Morgan, the former England captain, remained adamant in his opposing stance to Hales’ recall; after Hales was dropped, Morgan said the opener showed “complete disregard” for the team’s values and creating “a lack of trust between Alex and the team” led to him being ousted for a long time.
Finally, after Morgan’s retirement earlier this year, England softened their stance. Poor form of Jason Roy and injury to Jonny Bairstow, who was named in the T20 WC squad, opened doors for Hales’ recall as Bairstow’s replacement for the T20 World Cup and for the Pakistan tour.
Hales marked his international return with a match-winning fifty against Pakistan in Karachi.
Johnson Charles
Part of both of West Indies’ T20 World Cup triumphs in 2012 and 2016, keeper-batsman Johnson Charles last played a T20I in September 2016. And it wouldn’t have been justified had anyone considered his international career over.
However, the 33-year-old has now made a straight comeback in the West Indies side for the T20 World Cup 2022 on the back of a stunning 2022 Caribbean Premier League (CPL). At the time the West Indies T20 WC squad was announced, opening the innings for St Lucia Kings, Charles was the second-highest run-getter in CPL 2022, with 227 runs in 6 knocks at an average of 45 and a strike rate of 136.
