Former Australia pacer Brett Lee has said that India are probably the favousrites to win the T20 World Cup this year. He also picked up KL Rahul as the leading run-scorer and Mohammed Shami as the leading wicket-taker of the tournament.
“But saying that, I think India are probably the favourites with their top four or five batters and their bowling attack. I have KL Rahul down as the top run-scorer in the tournament and Mohammed Shami to be the leading wicket-taker, purely going on the last few months. So if they deliver and India have one of the leading run-scorers and wicket-takers, it’s a good start,” wrote Lee in his column for the ICC on Thursday.
Shami, on the other hand, scalped 11 wickets in six matches for Punjab Kings in the UAE leg of IPL 2021, including two three-wicket hauls. In the warm-up match against England, Shami took 3/40 in his four overs, taking out Jos Buttler, Jason Roy, and Liam Livingstone.
“The teams who have had success on these wickets are generally from the sub-continent, so they normally have that advantage. But because we have just had the back end of the IPL played on these pitches, I think it brings the playing field a lot closer and both the Aussies and Proteas will be thinking that,” added Lee.
Lee was laos confident that Australia will start their campaign on a winning note on Saturday in Abu Dhabi.
Australia will play their first match of the T20 World Cup on October 23 vs South Africa while India will lock horns vs arch-rivals Pakistan on October 24 in their opening clash of the tournament.
