By Ravendra Madholall
Coach of the Canada’s men team Amarinder Bhinder is highly confident his team can be one of the top two sides by the completion of the Americas leg Global T20 2022 World Cup qualifiers. The seven-country tournament will begin on Sunday and conclude November 15 in Antigua and Barbuda.
Canada departed last Sunday and Bhinder believes they will return successful and more importantly head into the next stage, next year in Australia. “We (are) pretty confident of winning the tournament; I think the guys have got confidence and that is very good going into the competition,” Bhinder related.
Quizzed on the composition of the lineup, Bhinder said, the team is young and enthusiastic to showcase their talent. “(Yes), we are ready for the tournament; the selectors gave me a young and talented team and I think the players will do well; the side is well-balanced also and we will play and compete hard at this tournament,” Bhinder commented. Canada will begin their campaign against Belize.
The others teams are: Argentina, USA, Bahamas, Bermuda and Panama. Canada have never participated at the Global T20 event since its inauguration in 2007 and Bhinder mentioned that he and his boys are really anxious to get to the big dance in 2022.
“We have to take it step by step; obviously is a huge opportunity for us; we want to win we want to play the best cricket as well and I am very optimistic of coming out as champions,” Bhinder declared.
Notably, the top two teams from the Americas leg, will play another qualifiers in Australia next year before they can progress to the super 12 for the World Cup extravaganza. The coach further reiterated the importance of commitment from his lads if they going to make an impact in Antigua. He stated the preparations were great as well even though they practiced most of the time indoor.
The 14-member squad is as follows: Navneet Dhaliwal (Captain), Dilon Heyliger, Jatinderpal Matharu, Shreyas Movva, Salman Nazar, Rayyankhan Pathan, Cecil Pervez, Junaid Siddiqui, Kaleem Sana, Ravinderpal Singh, Hamza Tariq, Harsh Thaker, Saad Zafar and Aaditya Varadharajan. The squad will be accompanied by six officials: Carlos Ragoonath – Manager, Amarinder Bhinder – Coach, two Assistant Coaches Khuram Chohan and Daulat Khan, Ankur Sharma – Physio and Dinesh Mahabir – Analyst.