India won’t go to the T20 World Cup as favorites – RP Singh

Former Indian pacer Rudra Pratap Singh has opined that India won’t enter the T20 World Cup as favorites. India was recently knocked out of the Asia Cup 2022 after they suffered losses against Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the Super Four stage.

India had registered a five-wicket win over Pakistan in the Group stage of the multi-team tournament but they were not at their absolute best in the Super Four.

In fact, India had been knocked out of the Super 12 stage in the previous edition of the T20 World Cup 2021, which was played in the UAE. Since then India has been performing consistently in bilateral series, while playing both home and away, but they haven’t been able to deliver the goods in the major ICC tournaments.

“After their performance in the Asia Cup, India won’t go to the T20 World Cup as favorites. If you really want to earn that trophy, you need to make minimal changes in the squad and back the 11-12 players in the upcoming games against Australia and South Africa. If you continue to shuffle, it will only cause more confusion,” Singh told India TV Cricket on Saturday.

On the other hand, the former pacer from Uttar Pradesh also picked India’s squad for the T20I showpiece. The ex-left-arm fast bowler, who was India’s highest wicket-taker in their successful 2007 T20 World Cup campaign with 12 scalps, added he would pick Mohammad Shami in the squad.

“I will pick Shami because the pace and bounce will help him bowl back of a length which is his strength. I have also added Kuldeep Yadav because even he can exploit the bounce factor in Australia. KL Rahul might not be in the XI but will definitely be a part of the squad.”

RP Singh’s squad: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, KL Rahul, Deepak Chahar.

Reserves: Deepak Hooda, Sanju Samson, Ravichandran Ashwin