T20 World Cup 2021: "It is very difficult to go into a big event being the favourite" - Paddy Upton
Paddy Upton who was India's former health and conditioning coach has come with few words about the Indian cricket team ahead of the T20 World Cup.
He believes that Virat and his men would get under pressure as they are the favourites to win this title under the tutelage of MS Dhoni and Ravi Shastri. He was once part of Dhoni's 2011 World Cup-winning team and believes that India will win the tournament under Virat Kohli's leadership.
The South African coach had a few words with the Times of India and claimed that the other teams will be freely playing their natural game which will create immense pressure on Team India.
"Every team that plays against you comes in with an underdog mindset and going into a big high-pressure event with an underdog mindset sets up the kind of mindset that very often translates to winning.
You don't expect to win, you can play with freedom, you try and just keep transferring the pressure onto the opposition team who walk onto the field already with a lot of pressure.
So, probably the biggest disadvantage, like in the 2011 ICC World Cup, is going to be the pressure and expectation on the Indian team," Paddy Upton said to Times of India.
"India are arguably the best T20 cricket team in the world. The Indian team is excellently poised to do well because theyβve such a good team. So India will go into that T20 World Cup as a significant favourite. I have no doubt about that.
Probably one of the biggest challenges is that it is very difficult to go into a big event being the favourite because you have all the pressure and the expectation on you," he further added.
"Dhoni is super calm and Virat is obviously very emotionally charged" - Paddy Upton opined on MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli:
Extending a very warm welcome to the KING π@msdhoni is back with #TeamIndia and in a new role!πͺ pic.twitter.com/Ew5PylMdRy
β BCCI (@BCCI) October 17, 2021
MS Dhoni joined the Indian cricket team after finishing winning the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League. It was his 4th title in the cash-rich contest and now will be eyeing the T20 World Cup which is going to kick start once the warm-up games end.
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His presence in the dressing room will give a lot of confidence to the players who can learn a lot from him. The South African-born Paddy Upton also said a few words about Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni and Claimed "They're very different as captains in terms of the outward presence or their persona.
Dhoni is super calm and Virat is obviously very emotionally charged. They are almost two ends of the spectrum. I think together they work quite nicely on the field.
When Virat became captain, Dhoni was able to bring a certain calmness to the team around Virat, and was able to help Virat with just some thinking around bowling changes and fielding changes."