Oman Tournament Preview & Guide ICC World Twenty20 2016

#That6 Hitter:Zeeshan Maqsood

With each team preview we’ll be looking at the player most likely to provide the most 6 hitting during #WT20! Oman start us off and it’s the powerful left-handed opener in focus for Oman. He sprung to global attention during the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, in particular with his innings of 86 off 41 balls against Canada including 5 x huge sixes.

With a career strike-rate in excess of 130, Maqsood will be looking to go large at #WT20 in Dharamsala.

Key Facts
• This is Oman’s first ever appearance at a global event. It went into the Qualifier in Scotland and Ireland with a global ranking of 29 and was considered the outsider among all 14 teams before it sealed a famous qualification with a stunning win over Namibia.
• Oman is banking on experienced players heavily in this tournament. Eight of the men its 15-player squad are already over 30, and Munis Ansari, the right-arm pacer, is set to turn 30 in April
• Adnan Ilyas has the most number of T20I runs for Oman with 241 at an average of 26.77 and a strike-rate of 121.71. He also has Oman’s highest T20I score, with 54 off 27 balls against Afghanistan in Fatullah in February 2016.
• Bilal Khan is the only Oman bowler with more than 10 wickets in T20Is for Oman. Bilal has 14 wickets in nine matches at a good economy rate of 7.08. He is also the only one to have taken a four-wicket haul in a T20I for Oman, with 4 for 20 against Hong Kong in November 2015 in Abu Dhabi.

Key Match: The Netherlands

Oman is in a tough group that also has Bangladesh, which has been steadily on the rise since the ICC World Cup2015. There is also a fiery and competitive Ireland side, with rich experience of playing in major ICC events and great depth. The Netherlands is also tough side, but it has been a recent opponent for Oman, and the team will look at its match against the Dutch side as an opportunity to secure a win.

Oman has played Netherlands once before and gotten the better of the contest with Jatinder Singh's unbeaten 65 guiding the team to a six-wicket win. Munis Ansari, the fast bowler had also contributed with a four-wicket haul that left Oman a target of 136 to chase.

What people are saying about them:

“If they make improvements from what they have done in this tournament (2015 World T20 Qualifier), I don’t see why they can’t compete favourably in India against some of the lesser teams. You never know – Twenty20, in a short game, you can spring a surprise on even the best teams.” - Derek Pringle, technical adviser for Oman.

“It really, very frankly, exceeded my expectations because to beat Netherlands and Afghanistan, and then the all-important game against Namibia, they definitely exceeded expectations.” - Duleep Mendis, the Oman head coach.

“We were training under 45-50 degrees for four months, morning, afternoon and every day. So to come to this level, we wanted to first focus on fitness because we were lacking in fitness earlier.” - Jatinder Singh on how the team worked on its fitness to compete better.

Pommie Mbangwa Prediction – Oman: Group Stage-in with the big boys now and it would be a big surprise if they were successful in overturning one of the sides in their group. They can be very proud of having made it to the tournament and must aim high but I feel they are one of the sides that must learn as much as possible from being at the tournament so to try and continue the improvement of their players.

**Squad:**Sultan Ahmed (Capt/Wk), Aamir Kaleem(Vice-Capt), Syed Amir Ali, Munis Ansari, Jatinder Singh, Ajay Lalcheta, Mehran Khan, Rajesh Ranpura, Sufyan Mehmood, Vaibhav Wategaonkar, Zeeshan Ahmad Siddiqui, Zeeshan Maqsood, Bilal Khan, Adnan Ilyas, Khawar Ali.

Fixtures: Wednesday, Mar 9: v Ireland (Dharamsala), Friday, Mar 11: v Netherlands (Dharamsala), Sunday, Mar 13: v Bangladesh (Dharamsala)