London [UK], May 28 (ANI): England’s World Cup-winning former skipper and batter Eoin Morgan picked India as his favourites to win the ICC T20 World Cup, starting from June 1 in West Indies and the USA, saying that the strength and depth of the side is incredible at the moment.
Morgan was speaking at the Sky Sports podcast on Monday.
Speaking at the podcast with former England cricketers Naseer Hussein and Michael Atherton, Morgan said, “For me, the strongest side even with injuries throughout the tournament is India without a doubt.”
“They are favourites for me. The quality that they have on paper if they produce it I think they can beat anybody quite in the tournament. The strength and depth is absolutely incredible at the moment. We are talking about the players who missed out on the squad of 15 because of the quality they possess,” he added.
India will start their T20 World Cup campaign on June 5 against Ireland at the newly constructed Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York.
Meanwhile, the most-awaited blockbuster clash between India and Pakistan will take place on June 9. They will later play tournament co-hosts USA (June 12) and Canada (June 15) to wrap up their Group A matches.
In the tournament, India will be aiming to end their ICC trophy drought, having last won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013. Since then, India has reached the 50-over World Cup final in 2023, semifinal in 2015 and 2019, the title clash of the ICC World Test Championship in 2021 and 2023, T20 WC final in 2014, semifinals in 2016 and 2022 but failed to secure a big ICC trophy.
India will be aiming to win their first T20 WC title since they won the inaugural edition of the tournament back in 2007 in South Africa. In the last edition held in Australia in 2022, India lost to England by 10 wickets in the semifinals.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj
Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan. (ANI)
