Namibia’s Performance in T20 World Cup

Namibia Team Schedule for T20 World Cup 2022

Namibia T20 Squad S.W.O.T Analysis

Strengths – Namibia has enjoyed a good run of form in the shortest format and have notched up wins against teams that have far more experience than them in general. They would hope that they can make the most of this momentum and not only beat the teams that they have already beaten but also also create an upset. They had put up a good show against Pakistan in the last T20 World Cup.

Weaknesses – The team has relied heavily on few of their star performers like Williams, Erasmus and Smit in the past and too often their performances haven’t been matched by the rest of the teammates. An off day for the stars of the side can mean an off day for the entire team in that case.

Opportunities – The team is made up of many exciting cricketers, both young and old. On the one end of the spectrum, 26-year-old JJ Smit is creating waves with both his batting and left arm pace bowling. On the other end of the spectrum, after his time with South Africa, all-rounder David Wiese is enjoying a revival of sorts and has become the glue that has binded the team and given it much valuable insight into the needs of the game at the highest level. Both of them have a chance to make an impact at the biggest stage and help Namibia do some special things in Australia.

Threats – Like most of the teams that will be trying to proceed to the Super 12s from the, the margins for Namibia will be too small and they would need to pull off an upset to get to the next round in all likelihood.

Namibia Team’s Performance in T20 World Cup

After becoming an associate member of the ICC in 1992, it took Namibia more than a decade to find themselves playing against Test playing nations. That happened at the 2003 World Cup which was held in South Africa where Namibia got to play against multiple top level Test playing nations including the finalists Australia and India. Their performance was encouraging despite facing defeat in all the six encounters that they played. The high of the 2003 World Cup appearance was followed by years of being away from the big stage as they failed to qualify for any of the World Cups that followed.

But late in the 2010s, along with South Africa born Pierre De Bruyn as the coach, the South African all-rounder Albie Morkel became part of the coaching setup and another South African player, David Wiese, switched to playing for Namibia after his career with South Africa got over. The playing standards significantly rose and Namibia managed to qualify for the 2021 T20 World Cup after defeating Oman in the playoffs in 2019. They surpassed expectations at the 2021 T20 World Cup when they defeated Netherlands and Ireland to qualify for the Super 12s. They even managed a win over Scotland in the Super 12s to cap off a memorable first appearance for themselves at the T20 World Cup.

In Australia, they would try to emulate their performance from their previous T20 World Cup and try to sneak into the Super 12s. They have been in good form too and achieved their first win against a full member when they defeated Zimbabwe 3-2 in May 2022. Namibia, however, would start their campaign against Sri Lanka, a team that met them in the first match of the 2021 World Cup too and defeated them emphatically.

On account of qualifying for the Super 12s of the tournament in 2021, they will also be playing in the first stage of the tournament. There they will have to face Sri Lanka as well as UAE apart from another team that will join these three from the Qualifiers stage.