England have experience but Australia are favourites

In the build-up to the 2007 World Cup Australia were pinned with the "Dad's army" tag after their loss to England in the CB Series and to New Zealand in the Chappell-Hadlee series, because several members of their squad were on the wrong side of 30. That, however, didn't stop them from steamrolling all opponents during their triumphant campaign in the Caribbean. Five months on, no one dares bill them as anything but favourites as the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 got underway in South Africa.

The average age of the Australian World Cup squad was 30.86 years, and their Twenty20 squad is fractionally older. The two changes they have made to the XV that travelled to the West Indies were forced - with Brett Lee coming in for Glenn McGrath and Ben Hilfenhaus replacing the injured Shaun Tait.

India, on the other hand, have the most changed squad since the World Cup. With Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly opting out of the Twenty20, the average age of the squad is 24.32 - the third youngest after Bangladesh and Zimbabwe - compared to 27.72 at the World Cup. Whether younger legs translates into a more athletic fielding outfit remains to be seen.

Average age of each World Twenty20 squad

Team	Num	Ave Age	Min	Max	0-25	26-29	30+
Australia	15	30.930	24y 180d	36y 217d	2	4	9
New Zealand	15	28.925	23y 187d	32y 275d	2	8	5
Scotland	15	28.739	21y 123d	37y 317d	4	6	5
England	15	28.542	21y 79d	34y 137d	4	6	5
Sri Lanka	15	28.278	22y 221d	38y 73d	5	5	5
South Africa	15	27.659	22y 79d	34y 57d	5	5	5
Kenya	15	26.661	19y 251d	36y 78d	7	4	4
West Indies	15	26.506	22y 182d	33y 26d	8	5	2
Pakistan	15	26.102	21y 338d	33y 106d	9	5	1
India	15	24.320	18y 261d	29y 281d	11	4	0
Zimbabwe	15	23.404	19y 145d	31y 241d	13	1	1
Bangladesh	15	21.656	18y 175d	25y 88d	15	0	0

England, in complete contrast to the World Cup, where they were one of the more inexperienced one-day sides, have more Twenty20 experience than anyone else. There have been 19 Twenty20 internationals prior to the ICC World Twenty20 and England have played the most, six, while Australia, South Africa and New Zealand have played five each. Among the Test nations, India have played the fewest: one Twenty20 international against South Africa, while even Kenya have played two. Eight members of India's squad have not yet played a Twenty20 international. If you count domestic matches, England still have the most experienced squad, and players like Luke Wright and Darren Maddy are Twenty20 specialists on the county circuit.

Total Twenty20 (inc domestic) experience for each World Twenty20 squad

Team	Mat	0	1-5	6-10	11+	Min	Max
England	336	0	0	2	13	6	43
South Africa	274	0	0	3	12	7	32
Pakistan	227	0	0	3	12	9	28
New Zealand	147	0	6	3	6	1	29
Australia	131	0	6	4	5	2	33
India	116	0	7	3	5	3	14
Sri Lanka	104	0	6	8	1	2	16
West Indies	62	0	13	2	0	1	8
Scotland	38	10	4	0	1	0	28
Bangladesh	29	2	13	0	0	0	3
Kenya	28	3	11	1	0	0	9
Zimbabwe	16	4	11	0	0	0	2

England, however, have nine players - the most apart from Bangladesh and Scotland - who have never played an ODI in South Africa. West Indies also have eight who don't have experience of the conditions, while among the Australians and Zimbabweans, all but three on each side have played at least one game in South Africa.

Total ODI experience in SA for each World Twenty20 squad

Team	Mat	0	1-5	6-10	11+	Max
South Africa	548	4	3	0	8	122
Australia	141	3	5	1	6	30
Sri Lanka	129	7	3	0	5	32
New Zealand	93	7	1	1	6	18
Kenya	79	8	1	1	5	16
India	78	7	4	1	3	22
Pakistan	55	6	6	1	2	16
Zimbabwe	54	3	7	5	0	7
West Indies	52	8	4	1	2	18
England	41	9	3	2	1	12
Bangladesh	18	12	1	2	0	9
Scotland	0	15	0	0	0	0

The first hundred in a Twenty20 international - Chris Gayle's 117 against South Africa - came in the inaugural match of the ICC World Twenty20 but there are seven other domestic Twenty20 centurions playing in the tournament. The quickest domestic hundred was scored by Andrew Symonds, whose century came off 34 balls - quicker than Shahid Afridi's 37-ball record in ODIs - for Kent against Middlesex in 2004. The other centurions are Graeme Smith, Wright, Maddy, Brad Hodge, Rohit Sharma and Misbah-ul-Haq.

England's players have played the most Twenty20 matches and head the list of teams with the most runs, but watch out for Australia, whose players aggregate 3349 runs in only 115 innings, significantly fewer than either South Africa or Pakistan.

Aggregate Twenty20 runs for each World Twenty20 squad

Team	Mat	Inns	Runs	HS	100	50	Ct	St
England	336	257	5491	111	2	30	135	2
Pakistan	227	178	3875	107*	1	16	64	11
South Africa	274	191	3799	105	1	17	72	5
Australia	131	115	3349	112	2	22	68	4
New Zealand	147	119	2560	73*	0	12	47	2
India	116	99	1820	101*	1	6	33	5
Sri Lanka	104	86	1607	94*	0	5	34	1
West Indies	62	52	816	61	0	3	18	2
Bangladesh	29	23	393	81	0	1	8	4
Scotland	38	28	318	41*	0	0	11	0
Kenya	28	24	297	38	0	0	12	0
Zimbabwe	16	16	154	38	0	0	7	0

Among the players involved in the tournament in South Africa, Mohammad Asif has the best bowling figures, including domestic competitions. He took 5 for 11 for Sialkot Stallions against Faisalabad Wolves in 2006. There have been four other five-wicket hauls, by Shoaib Malik, Fawad Alam on the Pakistan domestic circuit, and Dimitri Mascarenhas and Collins Obuya in England.

Aggregate Twenty20 wickets for each World Twenty20 squad

Team	Mat	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	BBI	4	5
England	336	702.3	7	5176	245	5/14	5	1
Pakistan	227	489.3	6	3494	172	5/11	5	3
South Africa	274	533.0	6	3837	161	4/13	1	0
Sri Lanka	104	243.2	1	1743	91	4/24	3	0
India	116	240.3	2	1660	86	4/10	3	0
New Zealand	147	281.5	1	2241	85	4/16	1	0
Australia	131	241.4	1	1805	84	4/9	4	0
West Indies	62	130.1	0	884	43	3/13	0	0
Scotland	38	94.0	3	716	27	3/21	0	0
Bangladesh	29	52.0	1	405	18	3/17	0	0
Kenya	28	51.4	0	407	17	5/24	0	1
Zimbabwe	16	21.3	0	176	10	3/25	0	0