The ICC Men’s T20 is already underway with 20 teams fighting to get their names on the ultimate prize. India are the defending champions of the competition and will look to defend their crown on their home soil. In fact, they are the title favorites as well given their build up to the World and their aggressive run of form since their 2024 T20 World Cup triumph. Kagiso Rabada disagrees on India being the favourites

While the majority of the cricketing fraternity is backing India to defend its title, Kagiso Rabada has different thoughts. The death over specialist recently shared his views about the World Cup during a media interaction in Ahmedabad and said there are no favorites and anyone can go the distance because the tournament is very unpredictable. “You cannot say that there's a favourite in this tournament. I think it's up for grabs. Anyone can take it. We'll be putting our hand up for that for sure. I'm not too sure what's going on in the Indian camp. This tournament is right open," said Rabada as per ESPNCricinfo.

Rabada also opened up about the Indian pitches and said that Indian wickets do not offer much support for the bowlers, but that shouldn’t be the case in an ICC event. “It's India, there are small grounds, the ball skids on and when dew comes, it makes it even worse. But in ICC events, from what I've seen, not all games will be high scoring. You'll get venues that will be high scoring from time to time, but I don't think all pitches would be that way. Especially in ICC events, you'll see that there will be something for the bowlers every now and then." he added.

The pacer also spoke about South Africa’s defeat to India during the warm-up matches. He said that the warm up match was just an opportunity for the players to get in line with their objectives for the tournament.

"We weren't trying to really be strategic. It was just more for the individual players to kind of get a feel of what they wanted to do and announce themselves into the tournament, so to speak,”

The 30-year-old knows the wicket at Ahmedabad like the back of his hand because of his time with the Gujarat Giants.

“We do certainly have a lot of pace, so it's about understanding how we're going to combine that with the slower bowling that we've got and use that to the best effect. Let's see what the conditions hold for us. Ahmedabad is known for wickets that will suit fast bowling. There are different soils. There's red soil, there's black soil. Normally, the red soil is the bouncier soil. We just need to take that into account and understand how best we're going to put everything together."

He also believes that a lot of the players are accustomed to Indian conditions because of regularly playing in the IPL. "A lot of overseas players who have played in the IPL are not as foreign to the conditions as they might have been in the past. That's what the leagues have done. The guys are really in tune with the conditions." he asserted.

Rabada backed his team and teammates to recreate their heroics in an ICC event after winning the World Test Championship last year. "What we've done in the past will most definitely give us motivation and belief that we can do it again," he concluded.