Former England skipper Michael Vaughan is surprised to note how India get the favorites tag for the ongoing T20 World Cup.
Vaughan stated that the Indian team hasn’t done well in the shortest format of the game. In fact, India is currently placed at second place in the T20I rankings.
Vaughan feels 2019 World Cup champions England will enter the tournament as favorites. Interestingly, India convincingly won the warm-up match against England by seven wickets on Monday.
On the other hand, the former English captain feels West Indies and Pakistan could be the dark horses of the tournament while New Zealand also holds a good chance to go all the way as they can come up with the right strategies.
Vaughan also believes Australia won’t hold much chance as they aren’t in the best forms in T20 cricket. He added that in-form Glenn Maxwell will need to have an incredible tournament if Australia is to go all the way.
“England for me are the favorites. I don’t know how India gets the ‘favorites’ tag in T20 cricket. I just think they’ve been a long way off in the last few tournaments,” Vaughan told BBC Test Match Special.
“West Indies and Pakistan will be threats. I wouldn’t write off Pakistan either. New Zealand has high-class players and you know they will come up with strategies to win games. “I’ll say it now, I don’t give Australia much chance. In T20 cricket they’ve struggled. Glenn Maxwell’s exceptional so he will have to have an incredible tournament.
“But I don’t see the Aussies doing too much. England, India, West Indies, New Zealand, one of those four and maybe Pakistan because of the conditions,” Vaughan said.
Vaughan added scores around 150-160 will be defendable in the T20 World Cup as the same pitches were used during the IPL.
“The pitches will be interesting because they’ve been used and slow [during the Indian Premier League]. I think 150-160 might be defendable scores,” he said.
