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Former India captain and cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar has picked four team he believes could reach the semifinals of the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. While he picked two teams from Asia, he also included the hosts and the defending champions as the third country in his list. England complete his semi-final lineup.
"I would obviously want India to be the champions but my top four would be India, Pakistan, Australia and England," Sachin Tendulkar said in an interview with Telegraph India.
"India has a very good chance. This team is well-balanced and we have the combination to go out and deliver. In fact, I am quite hopeful of our chances and going the full distance," he added.
The 49-year-old, who led India Legends to victory in the second successive season of the Road Safety World Series tournament, chose New Zealand and South Africa as the dark horses of the tournament this year.
"New Zealand are the dark horse as are South Africa… These are the conditions South Africans get to encounter at home in September-October. They are used to such conditions," he stated.
Notably, the Indian contingent is set to begin their campaign on October 23 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground against Pakistan. While India had a 100 per cent record against their arch-rivals in all World Cup matches (T20Is and ODIs), the record was broken when Babar Azam-led Pakistan handed India a 10-wickets defeat at the Dubai International Stadium in the T20 World Cup last year.
Since then, the two teams have met twice at the Asia Cup 2022 and while India won the first of those matches, it was Pakistan who won the second.
India squad for T20 World Cup 2022:
Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammad Shami.
Standby Players: Mohammed Siraj, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Shardul Thakur.