Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has said that the current Indian team will be huge contenders to win the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2024 to be played in West Indies and the USA in June next year.
India recently lost the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 to Australia at home and their drought of ICC trophies got extended. India last won an ICC event in 2013, which was the Champions Trophy in England.
Since then, they made the knockouts of two Cricket World Cups and 2 T20 World Cups, and one Champions Trophy, but couldn’t win the title. They also lost the first two finals of the ICC World Test Championship in 2021 and 2023.
"I see India winning a World Cup very soon. It might not be a 50-overs (one) that easily because you have to again rebuild the side, but 20-overs cricket, the very next one India will be very serious challengers because you have got the nucleus, it's a shorter format of the game. Your focus should be on that," Shastri said at an event at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday.
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Shastri further summed up India’s performance in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.
"I think it was fabulous. To be honest, it still hurts from the outside, that we could not win the cup because we were the strongest team. The way the bowling stood up towards the mid-stage of the tournament, you thought they had a great, great chance. But then nothing comes easy - even the great man Sachin Tendulkar had to wait (for) six World Cups to win one. You don't win World Cups (easily), to win a World Cup you have got to be damn good on that big day. What you did earlier does not count,” he added.
Shastri emphasized that Australia raised their game when it mattered most, in the knockout rounds, and came back to win the World Cup after losing their first two games.
"On that big day, that's when you rise to the occasion. Even before the start of the tournament, you knew what would happen (in terms of the format)…early doors are there, the top four teams are there, semifinal and final. Those two days if you perform, you win. Those were the two days, Australia performed when they came from nowhere. They lost the first two, but on D-day, the two days, they did. It was heart-breaking but a lot of our guys will learn, the game moves on," he said.
Currently, India is 2-0 up in the five-T20I match series against Australia at home.
(PTI inputs)
