Kapil Dev Urges Rohit Sharma & Co. To ‘Play As Team, Not Individuals’ Ahead Of IND Vs ENG T20 World Cup 2024 Semifinal
New Delhi: India’s 1983 World Cup-winning former captain, Kapil Dev, urged Rohit Sharma’s men to play as a collective unit if they want to win the ongoing T20 World Cup in the Caribbean. India are one of the two unbeaten teams so far in the tournament and will be facing England in the semifinal on Thursday. A win against England will pit the Men in Blue against the Proteas who defeated Afghanistan in the first semifinal to make their first-ever World Cup final.
India’s only T20 World Cup title came in 2007. They did came close on a few occasions after that but failed to meet the expectations of millions of fans around the never got their hands on the title. In the previous edition in Australia, India lost to eventual England in the semifinals.
“Why talk about only Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, or Kuldeep Yadav? Everybody has a role to play. Their job is to win the tournament,” Kapil told PTI. “To win a match, an odd person can come out, but to win a tournament everybody has to work together. If we are going to depend on Bumrah or Arshdeep, then you are going to lose it,” he asserted.
“Let’s talk about the team. That gives you a better perspective rather than the odd player. Yes main player is there and we can go around him. But everybody has to chip in to win the World Cup,” he added. The 65-year-old pointed out that in his 1983 World Cup-winning team, he wasn’t the only one who performed.
“Roger Binny, Mohinder Amarnath, Kirti Azad, Yashpal Sharma all came out with match-winning performances. If you start depending on one player it means you are not going to win tournaments more often,” he observed.
He wished India good luck ahead of their semi-final match against England and hoped that the Men in Blue clinch the trophy. “All the Best, good luck, I hope the Indian players, the way they are playing keep on playing like that, they should not have a bad day and be out of the tournament (like) what happened last time in the 50 overs World Cup,” said the iconic all-rounder.
“They are playing well, they are enjoying. Hats off to them. Good luck to them. I wish them all the luck and happiness,” he added before lauding Bumrah, who has been the star performer for India with 11 wickets in the tournament so far.
“Bumrah is 1000 times better than me. These young boys are far better than us. We had more experience. They are better. They are very good. Outstanding. They are fitter. They are much more hardworking. They are fantastic,” he said.