ICC T20 World Cup 2024: Teams that will participate in the league for the first time

The ICC T20 World Cup 2024 is approaching faster than ever and all the teams are ready to play the most-awaited tournament of the year. A total of 20 teams will be participating and 55 matches will be played in the ninth edition of the tournament. While most of the teams will be playing the T20 World Cup after two years, three teams will be playing their maiden T20 World Cup this year.

Passionate about playing cricket, Uganda, USA, and Canada, have qualified for the first time to participate in the World Cup. The entire world is proud of how far the teams have come and will be hoping to see a good contest during the tournament. The tournament will start on June 2 between the USA and Canada and will end on June 29. While both teams will try to make a mark in the tournament, it will be fun to watch the game. 

Let's discuss the three teams who will make their T20 World Cup 2024 debut:

1. USA

The USA, also the co-host of this year's World Cup are ready to play their debut tournament. This is the first time an American country is about to participate in a British-colonised sport. The ICC's plan to globalize the sport has worked in their favour as the USA managed to qualify for the main tournament which shows their interest in the game. Moreover, as the USA has declared their team for the World Cup, they have added former New Zealand player, Corey Anderson. With an ample amount of experience in cricket, Anderson will guide the team during the tournament. 

USA squad: Monank Patel (captain), Aaron Jones (vice-Captain), Andries Gous, Corey Anderson, Ali Khan, Harmeet Singh, Jessy Singh, Milind Kumar, Nisarg Patel, Nitish Kumar, Nosthush Kenjige, Saurabh Nethravalkar, Shadley Van Schalkwyk, Steven Taylor, Shayan Jahangir. 

Reserve Players: Gajanand Singh, Juanoy Drysdale, Yasir Mohammad.

2. Canada

Another country to make its T20 World Cup debut is Canada. Same as the USA, Canada's performance in the T20 World Cup has been great. In the league stages, Canada will play alongside India, Ireland, Pakistan, and the USA. The team has a mix of young and experienced players who will be under ICC's radar during the entire tournament. The debutants will be looking forward to playing a good game of cricket and defeating teams like India and Pakistan which will definitely put them on the front seat. 

Canada squad: Saad Bin Zafar (c), Aaron Johnson, Dilon Heyliger, Dilpreet Bajwa, Harsh Thaker, Jeremy Gordon, Junaid Siddiqui, Kaleem Sana, Kanwarpal Tathgur, Navneet Dhaliwal, Nicholas Kirton, Pargat Singh, Ravinderpal Singh, Rayyankhan Pathan, Shreyas Movva. 

Reserves: Tajinder Singh, Aaditya Varadharajan, Ammar Khalid, Jatinder Matharu, Parveen Kumar.

3. Uganda

This is the first time Uganda will take part in a senior men's World Cup. However, Uganda has been represented in a global event through the now-defunct East Africa team that took part in the 1975 Cricket World Cup. Moreover, the team consisted of players like Samuel Walusimbi and John Nagenda, the two Ugandan squad members of the team. This time Uganda will be playing in group Group C, taking on co-hosts West Indies, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Afghanistan. 

Squad: Brian Masaba (c), Simon Ssesazi, Roger Mukasa, Cosmas Kyewuta, Dinesh Nakrani, Fred Achelam, Kenneth Waiswa, Alpesh Ramjani, Frank Nsubuga, Henry Ssenyondo, Bilal Hassun, Robinson Obuya, Riazat Ali Shah (vc), Juma Miyaji, Ronak Patel. 

Reserves: Innocent Mwebaze, Ronald Lutaaya