Global T20 Canada: All you need to know about Edmonton Royals

The Global T20 Canada, which is the international T20 league held in Canada, begins its inaugural season on June 28. When new countries like Canada take up the sport and try their best to develop, it is a matter of pride and importance to the sport.

The league is contested by the Windies B team and five main Canada-based city teams - namely the Edmonton Royals, Montreal Tigers, Toronto Nationals, Vancouver Knights and Winnipeg Hawks. Almost 1600 players participated in the players' draft that was conducted on June 3, 2018, out of which nearly 600 were Canadians.

In the end, 96 players were selected to play for the six teams, 16 players apiece. The tournament will also feature marquee players Shahid Afridi, Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Steve Smith, Chris Lynn, Lasith Malinga, David Miller, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell and Darren Sammy.

The Edmonton Royals are one of the sides in the tournament. Coached by Mohammad Akram, the team has a good set of players which can definitely go all the way and take a direct shot at the title. In the upcoming slides, we shall get familiar with Edmonton Royals, the squad, their chances and more.

General Overview

The Edmonton Royals is one of the six teams in the Global T20 League Canada. It is coached by Mohammad Akram and is captained by Shahid Afridi, who is also their icon player.

Shahid Afridi has the experience of leading Pakistan to their first World T20 victory, defeating Sri Lanka in the 2009 edition of the tournament. He also scored the winning runs. Apart from that, he is also widely regarded as a very useful all-rounder, especially in the limited-over formats.

Team Schedule

The following is the team schedule for Edmonton in the Global T20 Canada 2018:

#1. June 30, Friday, 11am local, 8:30pm IST: vs Toronto Nationals, 3rd match, Round 1

#2. July 1, Saturday, 4pm local, 1:30am IST: vs Windies B, 6th match, Round 1

#3. July 4, Monday, 4pm local, 1:30am IST: vs Montreal Tigers, 9th match, Round 1

#4. July 6, Wednesday, 4pm local, 1:30am IST: vs Vancouver Knights, 11th match, Round 1

#5. July 7, Friday, 4pm local, 1:30am IST: vs Winnipeg Hawks, 13th match, Round 1

Maple Leaf (North-West) Ground

All matches will take place at the Maple Leaf North-West Ground, King City, Ontario province.

Squad

Lynn will be integral to their chances of doing well

The Montreal Tigers' squad is as follows:

1. Shahid Afridi (captain)

2. Chris Lynn

3. Luke Ronchi (wicketkeeper)

4. Mohammad Irfan

5. Sohail Tanvir

6. Christiaan Jonker

7. Wayne Parnell

8. Asif Ali

9. Hasan Khan

10. Agha Salman

11. Shaiman Anwar

12. Ammar Khalid

13. Satsimranjit Dhindsa

14. Ahmed Raza

15. Simon Pervez

16. Abraash Khan

Strengths and Weaknesses

Luke Ronchi is expected to open alongside Chris Lynn

The batting in Chris Lynn and Luke Ronchi are the definite highlights, along with the pyrotechnics one may expect from Shahid Afridi. The absence of any other well-known name in the squad could be a problem for the side. Especially in a format that needs useful contributions from everyone on certain occasions.

The bowling department is in safe hands as the Royals have Mohammad Irfan, Sohail Tanvir and Wayne Parnell. Afridi's leg-breaks will also pose a big problem for the opposing sides and he is someone who can win games on his own.

Chris Lynn is one of the few players in the team that has been doing well in recent times on the biggest occasion. Aside from him and Shahid Afridi, they don't have too many big-name players and that might be an issue for the side if they are to get out of the group stage.

Prediction

Tanvir will have to lead the bowling department

A top-three finish or further advancement sounds too much of a luxury to ask for from the side when the squad depth does not meet the standards of some other teams in the league. That being said, a bottom-three finish would be what we would be looking at, for the Edmonton Royals.

The X-factor is the performance of the regional Canadian players and provided they exceed expectations, maybe we can see the team working wonders to climb higher up in the group stage of the tournament.