With India Premier League is over, the India squad is preparing for yet another fast paced fight - the Twenty-20 World Championship. The recently concluded IPL gave the Indian cricketers and those overseas players, who played a full term in the tournament,  a good exposure to high-voltage cricket action The Indian squad is sure to cash in their T-20 experiences from IPL and two of the most successful IPL players - Yusuf Pathan and Suresh Raina maintain that India’s strength comes from its team’s all-round abilities. Both of them maintained that despite the pressure of expectations, the boys are confident of repeating history all over again.

“The team is very confident because all our players are in good form.” “Each one of us in the team focuses hard on the role assigned to us by the team management. At the same time, we compliment each other’s success and that is our success mantra,” said the middle order batsman Suresh Raina. “We have some of the best players in the world and we are hungry. I know that expectations are high but I can assure you that the players are all pumped up for the show,” echoed Yusuf.

He also brushes aside the concerns about the indifferent form of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir in IPL by saying, “It’s not a worry at all. Sehwag is a class act and we all know what he is capable of doing. For him, IPL wasn’t a success, but he is too good a player to have a poor run in two consecutive series. Sehwag is a dangerous player and so is Gambhir. Like me, I am sure the others will be itching to go out and finish the job for our team.”

Not alone the team insiders alone, the international cricket personalities too predict an excellent Indian performance in the upcoming Twenty-20 tournament. Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, has said India’s chances are definitely higher, as it has got more game-breakers than most other teams. He also figures out flexibility, unpredictability, batting depth and fielding as some of the team’s traits that make it “very, very formidable”. He places his bet on such cricketers as MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma and Yusuf Pathan and says that blessed with so many positive factors, the defending Champions would be the team to watch out for.

Arthur’s view gets support in the words of England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, who has tipped that Team India has got the highest possibilities of winning the ICC World Twenty20 title next month.  He held that the Indian Premier League experience will help the Mahendra Singh Dhoni led team a lot in the upcoming tournament. “Indian players just played in a world-class competition in IPL and naturally they are the favorites (to win the T20 World Cup). Australia, South Africa and England would be strong challengers. England can spring a few surprises,” Maintained Flintoff, who could miss the T20 World Cup as he is recovering from a knee surgery.

On the home front, the seasoned cricketers such as Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble are also very confident about India’s possibility of retaining the trophy. While Tendulkar said, “India is the most balanced side in the world and there is no doubt we can defend the title,”, Anil Kumble supported his stance.  

“In my opinion India have the best balanced side. If they play to their potential they will lift the Cup again. It's a fantastic side and all the players in the team showed good form in the IPL. Playing at home England are strong while New Zealand and Australia also look good. It will be a most competitive tournament”, said Kumble, who successfully led his IPL team RCB to the finals after Pietersen flew back home.

While seniors foretell an Indian victory in England, the youngsters look beyond IPL and focuses on their next mission, that is World Twenty-20 championship. “The IPL is a thing of past, my next big challenge is the T20 World Cup,” says Rohit Sharma, who despite his inexperience in international cricket contributed significantly to India’s title triumph in 2007.

Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha, meanwhile, maintained that playing for the winning team in IPL has given his morale that extra boost. “Our captain will have a lot of options to pick the playing eleven. It’s really a great feeling to be a part of the winning side in the IPL but right now, I am focusing on contributing to my team’s strength in the T20 World Cup,” Said Ojha.

While the seniors maintain that key to the success lies in teams’ ability to fast adapting to England conditions, today’s young cricket stars are not  at all bothered about that factor. “Twenty20 is all about momentum. If you are playing matches regularly, conditions don’t matter that much," Yusuf Pathan said. "Conditions in England are more or less similar to that in South Africa. In the last one year, we have played and won in different countries, so we don’t bother about changing conditions,” added Yusuf, who has enjoyed several highs in the recently concluded IPL for the Team Jaipur.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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