This is a real interesting group. There standings in the T20 rankings, and previous T20 world cup results are:
| Nation | Rank | Previous Tournament |
|---|---|---|
| West Indies | 4 | Group |
| New Zealand | 5 | Super12 |
| Afghanistan | 10 | Super12 |
| Papua New Guinea | 20 | DNQ |
| Uganda | 22 | DNQ |
Firstly, congratulations to Uganda for reaching their first finals.
The obvious teams to go through are New Zealand and the joint hosts, West Indies. The format of the previous tournament meant some teams went straight into the Super 12 stage, New Zealand and Afghanistan, while West Indies lost to Scotland and Ireland to fail in the group stage.
West Indies are a stronger team this tournament, have home advantage, and the two time champions will fully expect to do well. New Zealand will look to finally do better than their single runners up spot.
Afghanistan are a team likely to be facing difficulties in the coming years as their homeland continues to face ruling difficulties. Papua New Guinea and Uganda come into the tournament as the smallest of minnows and the the three lower teams may very well provide keenly fought and tense games.
The main game, though, should be the 12th June match between the top two ranked teams.
THis group has a majority of games played in the South American country of Guyana, some in Trinidad and Tobago, and one in St Lucia.
as with all of the groups, any bad weather can produce unexpected results but my anticipated finishing positions are:
West Indies
New Zealand
Afghanistan
Papua New Guinea
Uganda
text by stuartcturnbull. graphic by Mir Rammez Raja & edited by stuartcturnbull via postermywall