Canada will be taking part in the T20 World Cup for the first time. (Instagram/@saadzafar)
Cricket Canada has confirmed the official 15-man squad and five reserves for the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
Saad Bin Zafar will captain Canada in its first-ever appearance at the Men’s T20 World Cup in a squad featuring plenty of experience. Harsh Thaker, Nicholas Kirton, and Dilpreet Bajwa represent the youth in the squad as the only players under the age of 30, though the former two have also established themselves as key members of the Canadian XI.
Squad: Saad Bin Zafar, Aaron Johnson, Dilon Heyliger, Dilpreet Bajwa, Harsh Thaker, Jeremy Gordon, Junaid Siddiqui, Kaleem Sana, Kanwarpal Tathgur (wk), Navneet Dhaliwal, Nicholas Kirton, Pargat Singh, Ravinderpal Singh, Rayyankhan Pathan, Shreyas Movva (wk).
Reserves: Tajinder Singh, Aaditya Varadharajan, Ammar Khalid, Jatinder Matharu, Parveen Kumar.
Aaron Johnson’s explosive hitting will be critical at the top of the order, as will Kaleem Sana’s pace bowling when Canada is in the field. The all-around skills of Bin Zafar, Thaker, and Dilon Heyliger will be vital to Canada’s hopes of winning on the biggest stage.
Canada has been slotted in Group A alongside India, Pakistan, Ireland, and the U.S.A. The first match of the tournament features Canada against neighbours the U.S. in Dallas on June 1st, with the red and white then set to face Ireland on June 7th, Pakistan on June 11th, and India on June 15th.
All teams are allowed to make changes to their squad until May 25th, after which any alteration will require approval from ICC’s Event Technical Committee.