'They have some serious match winners' - Steve Smith says India are favourites to win 20-20 World Cup

Team India have started their 20-20 World Cup campaign with a bang. They crushed England in their first warm-up game before steamrolling Australia in their final warm-up match. Post the defeat, former Australia skipper Steve Smith lauded the Men in Blue and said that Virat Kohli’s team India are the favourites to win the showpiece event. Smith added that India have multiple match-winners in the team and will be the side to beat in the tournament.

India completely outplayed Australia in the game. A disciplined bowling performance by the Indian bowlers helped the team restrict Australia to 152-5 before Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav made easy work of the target. The team won the match with 8 wickets and 13 balls to spare. Smith said India have all their bases covered and will be a stiff opponent to beat. “They (India) are a terrific side, they have got all bases covered and some serious match winners in there,” Smith was quoted as saying by ‘Sydney Morning Herald’. “They’ve obviously been playing in these conditions during the last couple of months with the IPL so they’ll be used to that,” he added.

Meanwhile, Smith got some decent batting practice and scored 57 off 48 balls. Glenn Maxwell too carried on his decent form and scored a quickfire 37. He was well supported by Marcus Stoinis who provided a late flourish to the innings with a blazing 41. After a mediocre IPL, Smith was pleased to have some runs under the belt. Speaking about his performance he said, “It was nice to spend a bit of time in the middle again. It’s never easy when you’re three down. You have to rebuild for a period there and I thought we did that pretty well. The partnerships with Stoinis (Marcus Stoinis) and Maxi (Glenn Maxwell) were obviously important.”