Short of provoking an international incident, it is hard to see how the second World Twenty20 tournament, which starts when England plays the Netherlands at Lord’s ground in London on Friday, can have a more profound impact than the first, played two years ago in South Africa.

India’s victory over Pakistan in an excruciatingly exciting final instantaneously converted cricket’s economic powerhouse — previously indifferent at best to Twenty20 — to the gaudy charms of the game’s new short format.

What followed was the creation of the lucrative Indian Premier League, paying unprecedented salaries to leading players. It seemed to be the most significant challenge yet to the primacy of international five-day test cricket.

What makes the second edition of the Twenty20 World Cup intriguing is that this time, we know very little about the 12 competing teams.

The Twenty20 game, in which each team has an innings of 20 six-ball overs in a match lasting around three hours, has proliferated below the international level. But matches between test national teams remain a rarity. Only 89 have been played in five years. New Zealand has played the most by a single country, 21.

That means there is almost no form to go on. While most players are known quantities as individuals, we cannot be sure about team chemistry or how captains will deploy the talents available to them when matches are on the line.

A string of warm-up matches this week may offer some clues. These games have introduced English fans to the superb wicket-keeping of Jeroen Smits, the Dutch captain, and the tantalizing slow spin bowling of Majid Haq of Scotland. The games have also offered a reminder of the formidable pace bowling of Mitchell Johnson of Australia and Ishant Sharma of India and the hitting power of Chris Gayle, the West Indian captain.

The match between India and Pakistan on Wednesday had the atmosphere of a proper international, with a roaring sell-out crowd at London’s Oval ground for India’s resounding nine wicket victory.

Scotland had an internal falling-out that led to one player quitting, then briefly worried England, threatening a result that — warm-up match or not — would never have been forgotten. All of this is, though, the equivalent of spring training baseball — suggestive and intriguing, but of limited significance.

Of the 12 teams, 9 are established test nations. The others — Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands, are qualifiers.

The teams are divided initially into four groups of three, each team playing the others once. The top two progress. The assumption is that the qualifiers will go no further. Yet the format means one bad day can eliminate a big name — as happened to India and Pakistan in the 2007 World Cup. One of the test nations must go since Sri Lanka, Australia and West Indies have been drawn together.

The survivors divide into two groups of four, with the top two from each qualifying for the semi-finals. The final is at Lord’s on Sunday, June 21.

The bookies have made India the favourite. It has won the tournament before, and the I.P.L. is assumed to have raised standards. India looked terrific against Pakistan. Its players, though, could be tired after four months of non-stop cricket including the I.P.L. season.

Twenty20 matches are much shorter than a five-day test but they have an intensity that makes them both mentally and physically tiring.

Australia has won everything else in world cricket and has in hard-hitting rookie opening batsman David Warner one of the tournament’s most intriguing players.

In a version of the game in which bowlers must take batsmen by surprise Sri Lanka has two masters of spin and deception, Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis, plus dangerous swing bowler Lasith Malinga.

South Africa has a busload of all-rounders who contribute with both bat and ball. New Zealand always maximizes its talent and Pakistan’s lack of recent action mean that its players will be both fresh and hungry. Or might they just be rusty? England, never a winner in any of cricket’s short forms, has five rookies in its 15-man squad.