"Team India is Well Placed to Win the T20 World Cup" - WV Raman

Former Indian Women’s coach WV Raman has claimed that Team India under Virat Kohli is well placed to win the upcoming T20 World Cup. India last won an ICC event way back in 2013 when they beat England to be crowned as the Champions Trophy winners.

India’s best chance to break that trophy drought this year will come in the form of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. With a strong and established mixture of youngsters and seniors in the squad, Virat Kohli has a great opportunity to lead the side to success. However, they need to be wary of complacency while facing the ‘weaker sides’ in the tournament, according to WV Raman.

“It’s not so much pressure as it could be complacency. Complacency may not be the reason every time. But most importantly, if a very powerful and popular side is up against a side that is seen as inexperienced and weak, there is the danger of always being caught unawares by a team of unknown. Because, if you have a side where you know about each and every player, the opponents can plan and try and see how they can counter the best players in the opposition side,” the 56-year-old said.

“T20 is a format where no one is sure what would happen” – WV Raman

The T20 World Cup will be held from October 17 starting with the qualifiers in Oman. Alongside England and West Indies, the Men in Blue go into the tournament as firm favorites. But the nature of the format doesn’t guarantee anything, as stated by Raman. Taking the example of tennis legend Novak Djokovic, he said:

“T20 is a format where no one is sure what would happen. Everything can change in just one over. That is the beauty of sport. You look at World No. 1 Djokovic, who could not win the bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics He was in great form in tennis this year.”

“This happens in top-level sport. Generally, we cannot predict what happens in cricket, and more so in T20 cricket. Who wins, whether Kohli wins, it is different. If you look at his captaincy record, he has a very good success record. India is well placed to win the T20 World Cup.”

The World Cup will be held right after the completion of the IPL 2021. Both the mega-events are set to take place in the United Arab Emirates in the September-November window.