After missing the recent ICC Men’s T20 World Cup due to injury, Canadian cricketer Harsh Thaker is excited to compete again in the Global T20 Canada tournament. The fourth edition of the tournament, which features both domestic and international players, will be held in Brampton, Ontario, from July 20 to August 11. Thaker, who will be playing for the Vancouver Knights for the third time, was named the Emerging Canadian Player of the tournament last year. Reflecting on the experience, he described it as a memorable moment that will stay with him throughout his career, noting that his family and friends were watching the games and that it was special to play with the players on his team.
Thaker, who suffered two fractures in his right foot while training with Canada a month before the World Cup, acknowledged the difficulty of missing the tournament but expressed eagerness to perform in the GT20. He and the Knights will kick off their campaign against the Toronto Nationals.
Following the GT20, Thaker and the Canadian team will travel to the Netherlands for ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 matches against the Dutch and the U.S. The Canadian team currently leads the eight-team standings with a 4-0 record, bolstered by Thaker's centuries against Scotland and the UAE earlier this year.
The GT20, designed for a global TV audience, particularly fits into India's prime time with games starting at 11 a.m. ET. The tournament features six teams: the Vancouver Knights, Montreal Tigers, Toronto Nationals, Brampton Wolves, Surrey Jaguars, and Bangla Tigers Mississauga. Each team plays seven matches, with the top four advancing to the playoffs. The top two teams face off for a spot in the final, while the third and fourth teams compete for the remaining final spot.
The Vancouver Knights won the inaugural tournament in 2018 and finished as runners-up in 2019. Montreal Tigers claimed victory in the 2023 edition, defeating the Surrey Jaguars in the final after the tournament's hiatus due to the pandemic.
This year’s GT20 marks a significant moment for the Canadian team, which made its ICC Men’s T20 World Cup debut in June in the U.S. Led by captain Saad Bin Zafar, the Canadians achieved their first World Cup win against Ireland. Several Canadian national team members are participating in the GT20, including Nicholas Kirton and Nikhil Dutta (Toronto Nationals), Pargat Singh, Dilon Heyliger, and Rayyan Pathan (Bangla Tigers Mississauga), Aaron Johnson and Ravinderpal Singh (Brampton Wolves), Kaleem Sana and Dilpreet Singh Bajwa (Montreal Tigers), Shreyas Movva, Navneet Dhaliwal, and Junaid Siddiqui (Surrey Jaguars), and Jeremy Gordon and Rishiv Joshi (Vancouver Knights).
The tournament features international stars like David Warner (Brampton Wolves), Marcus Stoinis (Surrey Jaguars), Chris Lynn (Montreal Tigers), and Colin Munro (Toronto Nationals). Thaker emphasised the value of interacting with such elite cricketers, noting that even small moments of recognition from these players can significantly boost confidence.
Although Pakistani stars Shaheen Shah Afridi, Babar Azam, and Mohammad Rizwan were initially slated to participate, they will not play due to clearance issues with the Pakistan Cricket Board. The player pool also includes talent from countries such as Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, Italy, Malaysia, Namibia, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, the UAE, the U.S., and the West Indies. Indian players are generally not allowed to participate in foreign leagues unless retired from international cricket and the IPL.
Notable additions to the rosters include Usman Khawaja and Reeza Hendricks for Vancouver, while Toronto has bolstered its squad with Jason Behrendorff, Roston Chase, Fabian Allen, and Unmukt Chand.