ACC Championship 2022 Preview
The 2022 ACC T20 Championship this year is held in Malaysia in from June 17th to June 24th 2022. The tournament is organised by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and the top two sides will qualify for the 2022 Women’s Twenty20 Asia Cup, scheduled to be played in Bangladesh in October.
Ten teams will compete in two pools of five before the finals commence on 24th June. Not only are there two spots up for grabs but the matches will impact the teams ICC rankings. We welcome Singapore back to fold for the first time since the covid pandemic.
Pools:
A: Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Singapore, United Arab Emirates
B: Bahrain, Bhutan, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Nepal
Teams (ICC ranking)
Pool A:
Malaysia (33)
The home team of any tournament is always a sentimental favourite and the skipper Winnie Duraisingam always manages to rally her team to perform above expectations. Aside from being a sentimental favourite, there’s real talent in this team and they spring a few surprises.
Winnie wasn’t the only one of these players to benefit from participating in the FairBreak tournament. Joining her there was Sydney teenager Elsa Hunter, who has also come off a great experience captaining the Malaysia Under 19 team in the recent World Cup Qualifiers.
Mas Elysa brings great experience with both bat and ball and it will be her allround skills the team will build or defend a total. She’ll be looking to be the first Malaysia player to pass 500 T20 International runs during the tournament.
With both bat and gloves, one key player to watch for is Wan Julia and with the ball, the off-breaks of Mahirah Izzati.
Squad: Winifred Duraisingam (c), Mas Elysa (vc), Nik Nur Atiela, Sasha Azmi, Aisya Eleesa, Ainna Hamizah Hashim, Elsa Hunter, Jamahidaya Intan, Wan Julia, Dhanusri Muhunan, Aina Najwa, Nur Arianna Natsya, Nur Dania Syuhada, Yusrina Yaakop
Oman (37)
Squad: Vaishali Jesrani (c), Fiza Javed (vc), Afida Afthab, Nayan Anil, Saya Channa, Amanda Dcosta, Nikitha Jagdish, Sameera Khan, Priyanka Mendonca, Sushanthika Sathiya, Alfiya Sayed, Bhakti Shetty, Sakshi Shetty (wk), Sani Zehra
Qatar (50)
Squad: Aysha (c), Hiral Agarwal, Raiha Arshad, Shahreen Bahadur, Saachi Dhadwal, Rizpha Bano Emmanuel (wk), Khadija Imtiaz, Trupti Kale, Aleena Khan, Hiya Ladani, Angeline Mare, Rochelle Quyn, Shrutiben Rana, Sarrinah Siddiqui
Singapore (-)
Probably a little unlucky to find themselves in this pool, with Pool B looking decidedly easier for this team. That said, perhaps neither pool is likely easy for a team that has not played since the advent of the covid pandemic. This will be a true test of their character and indeed their cricket skills.
Singapore has played in twelve T20 Internationals, winning two, losing nine, with one no-result. They have beaten Malaysia twice from nine games and that is the only team they have played apart from Myanmar, so this is very company for the team.
The skipper and wicket keeper is Shafina Mahesh who has played in all but one of the team’s matches. She leads a largely inexperienced team as one might expect, but will draw on the skill of allrounder Diviya G K.
Squad: Shafina Mahesh (c, wk), Chathurani Abeyratne, Ada Bhasin, Riyaa Bhasin, Diviya G K, Piumi Gurusinghe, Vinu Kumar, Vigineswari Pasupathy, Jocelyn Pooranakaran, Johanna Pooranakaran, Damini Ramesh, Ishita Shukla, Zay Hua Tan, Ananyapriya Venkata
United Arab Emirates (14)
From top to bottom this is a high quality team and their ICC ranking of 14 is about spot on. It makes Chaya Mughal and her team the red hot favourites to win this competition. At the very least they will walk home with one of the two spots on offer for the Asia Cup.
The class of the youth in the UAE is high, indeed Theertha Satish, the Under 19 captain, just led her team to victory in the Asia Qualifiers for the Under World Cup. She also performed with distinction at the FairBreak tournament, as did Esha Oza. Both are skilled batters who score quickly, as is Kavisha Egodage. This is a top shelf batting line-up.
Khushi Sharma and Lavanya Keny are two bowlers to watch out for, not to mention the captain herself. The team just recently (apart from the Under 19s) scored a 4-0 victory over Hong Kong. This team is match fit and ready.
Squad: Chaya Mughal (c), Samaira Dharnidharka, Kavisha Egodage, Siya Gokhale, Priyanjali Jain (wk), Lavanya Keny, Suraksha Kotte, Vaishnave Mahesh, Indhuja Nandakumar, Esha Oza, Rithika Rajith, Theertha Satish, Khushi Sharma, Sanchin Singh
Pool B:
Bahrain (-)
Squad: Deepika Rasangika (c), Tharanga Gajanayake (vc), Vilcita Barboza, Deepika Bhaskara, Gayani Fernando, Rasika Hathadurage (wk), Poorvaja Jagdeesha, Prajna Jagdeesha, Sachini Jayasinghe, Shashikala Prakash, Rasika Rodrigo, Pavithra Shetty, Ishara Suhun, Abeera Waris
Bhutan (47)
Squad: Dechen Wangmo (c), Tashi Cheki, Ngawang Choden, Sonam Choden, Yeshey Choden, Karma Dema, Anju Gurung, Tashi Lhaden,
Pema Seldon, Sonam Sonam, Sangay Wangmo, Eva Somsel Yangzom, Dechen Zangmo, Tshering Zangmo
Hong Kong (24)
Squad: Kary Chan (c), Yasmin Daswani (vc, wk), Maryam Bibi, Betty Chan, Hiu Ying Cheung, Mariko Hill, Elysa Hubbard, Emma Lai, Natasha Miles, Bella Poon, Iqra Sahar, Shanzeen Shahzad (wk), Alison Siu, Ruchitha Venkatesh
Nepal (16)
It hasn’t been the best year for Nepal. They are clearly a very talented side as their ranking and past performances prove, but went down 3-2 against Uganda at home last month and frankly the visitors put their cue in the rack after leading 3-0.
Whenever a good team is not at their best, eventually one finds out that there are issues behind the scenes. Former vice-captain Sita Rana Magar found out of her demotion in the media and was quite vocal about it. She is such a vital cog in the team with both bat and ball it seemed odd to see her treated in this manner.
The key for Nepal is to push all of that aside. Can they? They certainly have talent to burn. One such player is opening bowler Sabnam Rai, such a key figure in the PowerPlay. Just bowls a nagging line and length – hard to put away. Doesn’t get a bunch of wickets but is a real nuisance for opposing batters.
Kabita Joshi and Kabita Kunwar are two to watch out for in a team that, if they all work together, could actually win this tournament. If they don’t, they’ll miss a spot at the prestigious Asia Cup.
Squad: Rubina Chhetry (c), Indu Barma (vc), Apsari Begam, Dolly Bhatta, Mamta Chaudhary, Kabita Joshi, Asmina Karmacharya,
Kabita Kunwar, Sita Rana Magar, Jyoti Pandey (wk), Sabnam Rai, Sangita Rai, Bindu Rawal, Kajal Shrestha (wk), Manisha Upadhayay
Kuwait (46)
Amna Tariq and her Kuwait team do look to have their work cut out for them here, but don’t allow that to give the wrong impression. The team underperformed at the GCC Gulf Cup 2022 recently and will be keen to atone. They are a better team than their ranking suggests.
The team will build their innings around their best batters, Maryam Omar and Priyada Murali. Along with the captain those two will be the bedrock of the batting.
They won’t get any rest in the field however as they are all key bowlers along with Maria Jasvi.
Kuwait will identify the games against Bhutan and Bahrain as potential wins and who knows? They may even surprise Hong Kong.
Squad: Amna Tariq (c), Maryyam Ashraf, Aakriti Bose (wk), Venora D’Souza, Siobhan Gomez, Mariamma Hyder, Maria Jasvi, Zeefa Jilani, Khadija Khalil, Mofida Kocchargi, Glenda Menes, Priyada Murali, Maryam Omar, Balasubramani Shanti
