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Team India favourites at Twenty20 WC
Playing a World Cup without Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly is one scenario that not many Indians would have dreamt of till recently.
- NDTVSports
- Updated: September 10, 2007 02:00 PM IST
Read Time: 2 min
Johannesburg:
That was when the magnificent trio opted out of next month's Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa.
But, even though they will be short of experience, the Indian team is expected to provide a good fight in the tournament under its new leader Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
India may have played just one international 20-20 game, the least of any test playing country, but they still travel to South Africa as among the favourites.
"They have still got exciting players like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj. So India is definitely a team you cannot write off and they are smarting from a world cup disappointment so I think they want to come here and do well," said South African Captain Graeme Smith.
However there is one area where India could suffer in this slam-bang format.
"Fielding is a team effort. You need all the eleven players diving on the boundary, saving the singles in the ring. It will be interesting to see the impact Robin Singh has had on the Indian team," said South African Team's fielding coach Jonty Rhodes.
India are clubbed with Pakistan in the group stage which means that September 14 is the day when people will not be able to get any tickets as the two arch rivals square off.
Playing a World Cup without Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly is one scenario that not many Indians would have dreamt of till recently. That was when the magnificent trio opted out of next month's Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa.
But, even though they will be short of experience, the Indian team is expected to provide a good fight in the tournament under its new leader Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
India may have played just one international 20-20 game, the least of any test playing country, but they still travel to South Africa as among the favourites.
"They have still got exciting players like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj. So India is definitely a team you cannot write off and they are smarting from a world cup disappointment so I think they want to come here and do well," said South African Captain Graeme Smith.
However there is one area where India could suffer in this slam-bang format.
"Fielding is a team effort. You need all the eleven players diving on the boundary, saving the singles in the ring. It will be interesting to see the impact Robin Singh has had on the Indian team," said South African Team's fielding coach Jonty Rhodes.
India are clubbed with Pakistan in the group stage which means that September 14 is the day when people will not be able to get any tickets as the two arch rivals square off.
Topics mentioned in this article
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