Soon after the ODI World Cup, the preparations for the mega event in the shortest format have begun for the teams. The T20 World Cup next year is set to be a mega affair as 20 teams will be taking part in the tournament. As many as 18 teams have been confirmed to play and the remaining two slots will be confirmed soon from the Africa region even as qualifiers are in progress.
Seven teams - Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Tanzania - are fighting for the two spots available in T20 World Cup that is to be played next year in the West Indies and the USA. On the expected lines, Namibia have done well so far with three wins in as many matches and look set to make it to the top two slots by the end of the league stage. The top two teams after 21 T20 matches will qualify for the T20 WC 2024.
Interestingly, the fight is for second slot and to everyone's surprise, Zimbabwe have fallen behind with shock losses to Namibia and Uganda. Kenya have emerged as the surprise package as they have won all their three matches so far and sitting at the second place in the points table and the guy leading the way for them is the 42-year-old veteran Collins Obuya.
Obuya has so far scored 137 runs (second most in the tournament so far) in three matches at an average of 45.67 and a strike-rate of 124.55 with nine fours and as many sixes to his name. He is opening the innings and taking the attack to the opposition. Kenya have been brilliant so far registering wins over Rwanda (17 runs), Nigeria (4 wickets) and Tanzania (50 runs) and still have three matches left against Namibia, Uganda and Zimbabwe respectively.
Coming back to Collins Obuya, he has been playing for Kenya since 2001 when he made his international debut against the West Indies in Nairobi. He has featured in 104 ODIs and 62 T20Is for Kenya and including all leagues, has been playing in the shortest format since 2003. Interestingly, he was part of the Kenya squad that historically made it to the semifinal of the 2003 World Cup. Moreover, in the same event Obuya played with Asif Karim and is now playing with the latter's son Irfan Karim who is a wicketkeeper.
