Despite not having played a single match in the Caribbean, former cricketer Stephen Fleming believes that the Rohit Sharma-led team is a very good one given the circumstances. In order to get to the Super 8 of the current T20 World Cup 2024, Team India overcame Ireland, Pakistan, and the United States. Rain forced the Men in Blue’s last group match against Canada to be cancelled, but they still won the championship and advanced to the next round, which will be held exclusively in the West Indies. They will now play Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Australia.
Selecting four spinners is crucial, as Rohit stressed before the competition began, and Fleming believes they will be very useful in the Super 8 and beyond. He went on to say that India was astute enough to anticipate the circumstances and select players who would perform well on spin-friendly tracks. The 51-year-old assessed that India enters the Super 8 in fine form with a well-balanced squad.
“I’m pleased with their performance; they made it through.” According to Fleming on ESPNcricinfo’s “Timeout show,” “This is a team that is, in some ways, picked for the finals. It has players and spinners that can dominate spin, and we’ve seen spin play quite a big part in the West Indies, not so much in New York.”
Hopefully, we will play like this in the semifinals and championship game: Stephen Fleming
In addition, Stephen Fleming, the legendary former captain of New Zealand, feels that Team India has selected their bowlers well for the T20 World Cup 2024, given their recent good form. He therefore anticipates that if the Men in Blue make it all the way to the elimination stages, the Indian bowlers would play well, particularly in the important games like the semifinals and the summit match.
They completed their task with skill and have a really astute point of view: this is how we want to approach the important games moving forward, ideally into the semifinals and championship. Their selection of a squad they believe may be on a turning track will offer us the best opportunity to win, he continued. “They have good balance, and we’ve seen that sort of in stops and starts; it’s just the conditions,” he said.
India’s next game is scheduled for Thursday, June 20, in Barbados, against Afghanistan. On June 22, they will play host to Bangladesh in Antigua; on June 24, they will play their final Super 8 match against Australia in St Lucia.