Former India captain Sourav Ganguly advised Team India on Saturday regarding their upcoming ICC T20 World Cup campaign, urging the Men in Blue to play freely from the start of their innings in the tournament.
The Men in Blue are set to face Bangladesh in their only warm-up game on June 1 at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York.
Ganguly’s optimism for India’s T20 World Cup campaign
Ganguly praised India’s “fantastic” side for the T20 World Cup, expressing hope that the Men in Blue will perform well in the prestigious ICC tournament.
We are hopeful that India will showcase strong performance. With a plethora of talented players in the country, selecting the final XI becomes a challenging task. We are spoiled for choices, given the fantastic side we have, Ganguly stated to ANI during an event.
The former captain emphasized the unpredictability of identifying the top five teams in T20 cricket, highlighting the format’s nature where any side has the potential to excel.
When asked if he wanted to offer advice to the Indian side, Ganguly deferred to Rahul Dravid, acknowledging his role as the coach. He expressed his intent to simply watch and support the team, adding, “I would just like to say that we have to play freely in the T20 format.” The ICC T20 World Cup is set to unfold in the West Indies and the USA from June 1 to 29.
Team India’s quest to end trophy drought
In the upcoming tournament, India will be keen to break their ICC trophy drought, as their last triumph was in the ICC Champions Trophy back in 2013. Despite numerous commendable performances in various ICC tournaments, such as reaching the 50-over World Cup final in 2023 and semifinals in 2015 and 2019, competing in the title clash of the ICC World Test Championship in 2021 and 2023, and reaching the T20 World Cup final in 2014 and semifinals in 2016 and 2022, India has been unable to clinch a major ICC trophy since 2013.
India will be aiming to reclaim the T20 World Cup title, their first since their victory in the inaugural edition of the tournament back in 2007 in South Africa. In the last edition held in Australia in 2022, India faced a disappointing defeat, losing to England by 10 wickets in the semifinals.