West Indies: My money on them to retain world title

The T20 World Cup roll of honour shows five teams sharing six titles. I feel the West Indies can win this edition in the UAE. The only country to have won it twice, the maroon shirts have enough firepower to win a third time despite being in a relatively tougher group in the league stages alongside England, Australia, South Africa and two unknown quantities from the qualifiers.

The unpredictability of this format makes it difficult to choose between the top teams — and two to three good performances can swing the match away from the favourites. A full-strength West Indies, who have several game-changers in the ‘Universe Boss’ Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo and skipper Kieron Pollard, are capable of doing that. There are question marks over the fitness of Russell, while the spin attack is not as varied as some other squads — but I would still back this ‘Dad’s Army’ to win one more time.