June 9 marks the first-round encounter between bitter enemies India and Pakistan in the T20 World Cup. This game will take place at New York’s Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, which holds 34,000 fans.
India and Pakistan are the favorites to qualify for the Super 8 stage from Group A which also has Ireland.
With last chance of playing in T20 World Cup being a reality for veterans like captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, India has relied on them to regain the crown that they won as champions in South Africa during inaugural edition (2007) of this tournament
After his opening remarks at Blue Ocean Corporation organized International Procurement and Supply Chain Conference on Saturday in Mumbai, former Indian Captain who was also former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly expressed his views on this mega encounter.
Ganguly explained that India had advantage over Pakistan but he acknowledged that their adversaries would have a tough time when it comes to Twenty20 cricket match that would be played out on June 9th.
“We have a very, very good record against Pakistan for quite some time now. I think T20 format is where probably they are more dangerous than in one-dayers; we beat them in Ahmedabad when they came to India and we beat them easily.”
Speaking about how he felt about India’s chances of winning, he said, “India is a better side but if they play well…if they play freely…and I keep saying the word ‘freely’ all the time because (in) that last World Cup in Australia I don’t think we played freely.”
“Just put all cobwebs behind you. Don’t worry about winning or losing. Don’t think about winning the World Cup. Just go out there and play every game,” He added.
Ganguly gave his opinion on how far India could progress in the tournament saying that India has got a very strong possibility of winning this T20 World Cup. This will be jointly hosted by the United States and West Indies, beginning on Saturday.
“India have very good chances in the World Cup. India has to play like a T20 team. There is enormous talent,” he said.
On India’s chances Ganguly said, “India’s chances are “very good” but the team should play with freedom.”
The drop-in pitches are usually quite good, extremely batting friendly. They hardly change over time since they are not like the usual turfs and so we will get very good surfaces,” he said.
