Steve Smith backs India as favourites for 20-20 World Cup
Australia batter Steve Smith has backed India as favourites for the 20-20 World Cup. Smith said India have multiple match-winners in the team and will be the side to beat in the tournament. Smith’s comments came after Australia’s crushing defeat to India in their second warm-up game.
“They (India) are a terrific side, they have got all bases covered and some serious match winners in there,” Smith was quoted as saying by ‘Sydney Morning Herald’. “They’ve obviously been playing in these conditions during the last couple of months with the IPL so they’ll be used to that,” he added.
India were at the top of their game and won the match with 8 wickets to spare. The bowlers set the tone and rattled Australia’s top order before Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis helped them push the target to 152-5. The Indian batters were on song in the chase and wiped it off without breaking a sweat. Rohit Sharma scored a blazing half-century, while there were good contributions from KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav as well.
Smith, who scored his first T20 fifty in over 7 months, was pleased to have some runs under the belt. “It was nice to spend a bit of time in the middle again. It’s never easy when you’re three down. You have to rebuild for a period there and I thought we did that pretty well. The partnerships with Stoinis (Marcus Stoinis) and Maxi (Glenn Maxwell) were obviously important,” he added.
