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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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