India does not consider itself the favourite to win the ICC World Twenty20, nor will it entertain talk of holding all three global limited-over cricket trophies at the same time, R. Ashwin has stated. The off-spinner was speaking ahead of India’s semifinal clash with South Africa at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium here.
“We’ve never been a team that’s believed in talking about these things (the three titles), because it’s only going to make things tougher. With four teams in the semifinal, everybody has a 25 per cent chance,” he said.
“We never walked into this tournament as favourites, and we wouldn’t want to be tagged as favourites. We just go in and enjoy ourselves,” he said.
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Ashwin expected South Africa to field left-arm orthodox bowler Aaron Phangiso, and felt the quality of the spinners on both sides was not vastly different.
“When it comes to international cricket, there’s a very small margin between the quality of spinners. It’ll be handling pressure that makes the difference, because Imran Tahir has been in top form. And I expect Phangiso to play. When that happens, you’re pretty much evened out the amount of spinners both teams will play.”
Ashwin was not bothered by Shane Warne’s presence at the South African training session. “I don’t know what the South African management called him for. Probably Tahir could learn something from him. He could have probably told them what’s happening in Dhaka, what’s happening in Mirpur, and those kinds of things could have helped them. Apart from that, I don’t know what he can do in a day’s time,” he said.
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The South African captain, Faf du Plessis, will be back in charge after serving a one-game suspension for a slow over rate. Having played for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, he had learnt much from M.S. Dhoni, du Plessis said.
“I’ve really enjoyed my time in Chennai and my time with MS. I have been there now for three years. I have learnt quite a bit from him as a captain. He is a very good and inspirational leader and he has had huge success for India.
“My style of captaincy is completely different to his. But it is nice to play with someone who has been in that role for so many years,” he said.
Moving to Dhaka after having played all its Group 1 games in Chittagong was a big factor, du Plessis felt. “The wicket at Dhaka is completely different to Chittagong.
“From a conditions point of view, they are much more used to them. We have put in some hard practice on really abrasive surfaces, making sure that we almost over-practised against the ball that is turning too much.”