Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar believes the Rohit Sharma-led Indian team has a good chance of beating England in the ICC T20 WC 2024 semifinals.
England and India are scheduled to play in the second semi-final of the 2024 T20 World Cup in the United States against West Indies later tonight. This England-India matchup will be a repeat of the 2022 SF in Adelaide where Rohit Sharma’s men were knocked out by Jos Buttler’s Three Lions.
SF in the Land Down Under was a one-sided affair as England drowned India by 10 wickets while chasing a total of over 160 wickets. Team England then beat Pakistan by 5 wickets in the finale held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. This time, Rohit Sharma’s Men in Blue will be aiming to take revenge and settle the score.
For the Indians to win the semi-finals, Rohit Sharma will need to continue the form he showed against Australia in the last Super 8 match. Rohit played an incredible 90+ knock in less than 50 balls with a whopping strike rate of 220+. Apart from that, India will depend on the performance of their entire batting order, especially Virat Kohli, who has been completely untouchable in this edition.
Virat Kohli has scored just 66 runs in six T20 WC 2024 matches in the group stage and Super 8. He will not get a better opportunity than tonight’s semifinal to overcome the team’s poor patch scores and make it to the final. In the last T20 WC final India reached in 2014, Kohli played a key role throughout the tournament.
In fact, in the SF match against South Africa, Virat Kohli scored 72 off 44 while chasing 173 runs in Dhaka and a similar result is expected tonight.
Sanjay Manjrekar claims India are a changed side and aims to attack Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
In a recent interview with Star Sports, Sanjay Manjrekar claimed that this Indian team is a very different T20I team than it was two years ago. Manjrekar said that the 2022 SF final loss was a wake-up call for the team and both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli admitted that they were the main reason for India’s defeat in the semi-finals.
“India have completely changed as a T20 team. It was a wake-up call for India. They may not admit it. Neither Rohit Sharma nor Virat Kohli have ever confessed to helping India lose the semi-finals, but this new India “It’s a completely different India.” – Manjrekar told Star Sports.
Manjrekar believes England have weakened.
The main reason why Sanjay Manjrekar believes Team India can win against England is because the latter team has become very weak. “The good thing for India is that Britain looks a little weaker than it did a few years ago. This helps India’s cause.” – Sanjay Manjrekar concluded.
