Team India might have failed to lift the ICC trophy under the captaincy of Virat Kohli as yet, but BCCI President Sourav Ganguly reckons the current side has all the talent to be considered a front-runner for the T20 World Cup 2021 and it only needs to show a bit of maturity to clinch the title.
“So, you don’t become champions easily and you just don’t become champions just by stepping into a tournament, so they have to get through the process, they have to show maturity,” Ganguly was quoted as saying by PTI.
“…they all have the talent, they all have the skill to score runs and take wickets at this level. They just have to be mentally in good space to win the World Cup,” he added.
The former skipper also advised the team to focus on winning every game rather than targetting the title straight away.
“…(the) title is only won when the finals are finished. So, you have a lot of cricket to be played before that and I think India should focus (on) every game, India should focus on winning every game and just taking it from there and not think about the title at the start,” he said.
“They (India) will always be contenders in whatever competition they play in and the challenge for them is to be at peace with themselves, focus on the process rather than the results because the most toughest thing and the most wrong thing to do is when you take guard and you think I am here to win the World Cup.
“…what is important is to play the next ball which is coming out of the hand and keep doing that till you get to the finals,” he further remarked.
During the just-concluded IPL 2021 second phase in UAE, most the matches were low-scoring but Ganguly doesn’t expect this trend to continue at the T20 World Cup.
“No, no, I don’t think so. Maybe in Sharjah it will be because of the wickets, but Dubai is an absolute belter, the (IPL) final played yesterday was an absolute belter. Abu Dhabi will be a great surface to bat on and it is going to be a great World Cup,” he opined.
The BCCI chief believes fans’ involvement with the game is increasing.
“That is why this game is so big in this country, the fans, the people they are so attached to this game, every year you see the IPL, the international cricket, just getting better and better,” he said.
For the T20 World Cup, India are slotted in Group 2 along with Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, and the two qualifiers from Round 1. The Men in Blue will start their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 24 in Dubai.
Subsequently, India will play their group-stage match against New Zealand and Afghanistan on October 31 and November 3 in Dubai and Abu Dhabi respectively while their games against the two qualifiers will be held in Dubai on November 5 and November 8.
(With PTI inputs)
