"You can pick two teams from India in the T20 World Cup and I think they will both come in the finals" - Farokh Engineer
Former India cricketer Farokh Engineer has labeled India as the favorites for the upcoming T20 World Cup.
India are eyeing their second triumph in the competition after having won the inaugural edition back in 2007.
Click here to see today's points table T20 World Cup 2021.
Farokh Engineer believes that India have been blessed with talent and their impressive bench strength allows them to field two sides for the competition.
The 83-year-old claims that if two Indian sides are put into the tournament, they will knock out all of the other teams to face off against each other in the finals. During an interview with Sports Tak, Engineer said:
"You can pick two teams from India in the T20 World Cup and I think they will both come in the finals. We are such a strong team. But T20 is a very short game, if you lose 2-3 wickets or something like that, any team can win, so luck plays a very important part."
Team India recently fielded two teams simultaneously across two different formats. Two squads were drafted, one of which, comprising of first-team players, traveled to England for the World Test Championship and the subsequent five-match Test series against the hosts.
The second contingent, consisting of second string of players and youngsters, were coached by Rahul Dravid for a limited-overs series against Sri Lanka away from home.
There's only one winner for the T20 World Cup and that is India: Farokh Engineer
The former batter strongly feels that India are the team to beat in the competition. He attributed the team's current confidence as a major factor and thinks other teams would be fearful at the prospect of facing India. Engineer added:
"There's only 1 winner - India. Not only through patriotism, but also by merit. Because I feel we are the strongest team in the world. If you can beat Australia in Australia and England in England, these are the two leading nations at the moment, with the present confidence that we have, India are the team to beat."
India have been drawn alongside Pakistan, New Zealand and Afghanistan in the Super 12s group of the competition. They will be joined by two more groups following the culmination of the qualification phase.
The Men In Blue will open their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 24 in Dubai.