T20 World Cup 2022: Kapil Dev gives Team India a mere 30% chance of qualifying for semis

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Lucknow, Oct 19: The Indian Cricket Team's rich vein of form lately made several cricket pundits predict them as favourites in the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. But former India cricketer Kapil Dev believes the Men In Blue have a mere 30 per cent chance of finishing in the top four in the showpiece event.

The Rohit Sharma-led Indian side is being grouped with Pakistan, South Africa and Bangladesh in the Super 12 stage of the multinational tournament. It could very well turn out to be a group of death should Sri Lanka and West Indies qualify for the Super 12 stage from round one in this group.

While interacting with media persons in Lucknow on the sidelines of an event, Kapil shared his opinion about Team India's chances in the showpiece event Down Under.

Kapil said, "In T20 cricket, the team winning a match can lose the next... It's very difficult to talk about the chances of India winning the World Cup. The issue is can they make it to the top four? And I am concerned about their making it to the top four, only then anything can be said. For me, it's just a 30 % chance of India making it to the top (last) four."

When asked about all-rounder Hardik Pandya and the impact he's going to have in the tournament, the legendary all-rounder said, "Even in our days, we had plenty of all-rounders in the India team. In our days too, we had idols, and we used to follow them. It's good that new benchmarks are being set by young cricketers. It's a very good sign for a team and I believe that everyone should keep working hard to set much higher benchmarks."

Commenting upon Suryakumar Yadav's impact on the current Indian side in the white-ball format, the World Cup-winning captain said, "No one ever thought he would be such an impact player when he came into the scene, but he has worked hard on his batting and forced the world to talk about him. Now, we can't think about India without him. Having a batter like Suryakumar in the team in the company of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, makes the team automatically strong."