Cricket Canada has announced its 15-member squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024, set to kickstart from June 1 in the United States of America (USA) and the West Indies. All-rounder Saad bin Zafar will lead the 15-man side for the biennial tournament.
The notable changes from the preliminary squad for Canada were the exclusions of Harsh Thaker, Kanwarpal Tathgur. Moreover, a Cricket Canada spokesperson clarified that Thakar will not be fit to feature in the tournament. “It was determined that Thakar would not be fit to play the four matches in the Group Stage,” the official said.
The side has also not named any travelling reserves, whereas spinner Nikhil Dutta, who was excluded from the initial provisional squad has made the cut to the final 15 along with left-arm speedster Rishvi Joshi. Apart from it, Cricket Canada also clarified that former Sri Lanka cricketer Pubudu Dassanayake will continue to be the team’s Head Coach despite being earlier informed by Assistant Manager and Vice President of Cricket Canada to relieve his duties.
“Hopefully we can put this all behind us. We’ll be focussing on the cricket, the team has worked very hard to get here and we’re looking forward to our first match,” Dassanayake told Cricbuzz.
Moreover, Canada are placed in Group A alongside India, Pakistan, Ireland and co-hosts USA in the T20 World Cup 2024. They will take on co-hosts United States in the tournament opener on June 1 (Saturday) at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas.
Canada’s T20 World Cup 2024 squad
Saad bin Zafar (C), Aaron Johnson, Ravinderpal Singh, Navneet Dhaliwal, Nicholas Kirton, Shreyas Movva, Nikhil Dutta, Pargat Singh, Rayyankhan Pathan, Dilpreet Bajwa, Dilon Heyliger, Junaid Siddiqui, Jeremy Gordon, Kaleem Sana, Rishiv Joshi
Canada team management: Pubudu Dassanayake (Coach), Khurram Chohan (Assistant Coach), Gurdeep Klair (Assistant Manager)