India Team Preview

Best Odds for India to Win

The best betting sites have India as the 4.0 joint-favourites to win the T20 World Cup alongside Australia but that doesn’t scream out as being a great bet.

Historically, India haven’t always been great in Australian conditions and have disappointed punters time and again as one of the favourites.

That initial win back in 2007 aside, they’ve got just one more final appearance (which they lost) to their name, so their pedigree in this tournament isn’t what you’d expect it to be.

So those odds of 4.0 actually look on the short side in terms of betting value.

They can of course go on to win it, they certainly have the players to do so, but right now, you’ll find more attractive bets.

India’s T20 World Cup Performance

India’s World Cup Performance in 2021

Whether you consider India to have been well below-par in 2021 or just downright unlucky, depends on your perspective.

Why could they be considered unlucky?

Well, they had their two toughest matches back-to-back right at the start of the campaign, first against deadly rivals Pakistan and then against New Zealand, always disciplined, well-organised and highly competitive.

To make matters worse, they lost the toss in both of them and were forced to bat first.

Which proved to be a huge advantage in the UAE last year, where dew in the second innings made it harder to bowl and field, handing the chaser a huge advantage in every game.

They did admittedly win their next two matches against Afghanistan and Namibia very comfortably but it was all too little too late, by that stage.

But it wasn’t all down to bad luck.

In both those losses, they posted sub-par scores in the first innings of just 151 and 110, which were never going to be enough against good strong batting line-ups.

Star batsmen such as Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul didn’t come good when it mattered and either batted too slowly or got out at just the wrong time.

Added to that, their opening bowlers failed to take the wickets that could have put the chasing side under early pressure.

They got too much wrong and exited at the Group Stage despite being the pre-tournament favourites.

India’s World Cup Performance in 2016

This was meant to be the World Cup on home soil where India became the only country to have won the T20 World Cup on two occasions. Instead, it was left to the West Indies to grab that honour after also winning it in 2012. And to make matters worse, the Windies beat India in the semis in heartbreaking circumstances.

India had finished as runners-up in Group 2 to New Zealand, losing to the Black Caps first up and then winning their remaining three games.

In the semi against the Windies, they did the first bit extremely well, posting a really competitive 192/2 thanks to a brilliant unbeaten 89 from Virat Kohli and also made inroads when they had key batsmen Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels dismissed for single figures.

But they gave Lendl Simmons three or four lives after dropping him and getting him ‘out’ off no balls and paid the price. He scored an unbeaten 82, Andre Russell smashed  43 off 20 and that was that, the Windies getting home with two balls to spare.

India can look back at their performance in the World Cup and bemoan the fact that bar Kohli (named Player of the Tournament), no-one got to 100 runs in the tournament in five games. But more to the point, they just had a really bad day in the field in that ill-fated semi-final.

Simmons made the most of his chances and India were left thinking about what might have been. At least they lost to the eventual champions, the Windies going on to beat England in the final.

MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ashish Nehra and Yuvraj Singh have all retired from India duty since that tournament.

Team India facts

Trivia about your favourite team is something every cricket fan loves. Here are some good ones regarding India in T20 cricket.

• Rohit Sharma (847) and Virat Kohli (845) are ranked fourth and fifth respectively for most runs scored at T20 World Cups.
• The now-retired Suresh Raina is the only Indian batsman to have scored a T20 World Cup century.
• Rohit Sharma is the only player left from India’s WC win in 2007. He’s now featured in 33 WC matches.
• Bhuvi Kumar (84) and Yuzvendra Chahal (83) are India’s top wicket-takers in T20Is.
• Only Sri Lanka (63.95%) have a better match win rate at World Cups than India (63.51%).

Captain: Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma has been extremely successful as skipper of the Mumbai Indians, leading them to an incredible five titles since taking over from Sachin Tendulkar.

When Virat Kohli resigned the T20I captaincy last year, Sharma was therefore the obvious man to take over given that success at Mumbai, his vast experience of over 130 matches in T20Is and the fact he was the vice-captain.

But here’s the curious thing: he’s not the most natural captain either as a leader or from a tactical perspective and one also wonders if being skipper of Mumbai plus India in all three formats isn’t too much for anyone to have on their plates.

Things didn’t get off to the best possible start at a big tournament with that early exit at the Asia Cup.

Another failure here will have Sharma under serious pressure less than a year into his T20 captaincy, especially if he doesn’t get many runs.