Sehwag labels India as favoruites to win T20 WC with game-changer Pandya back in squad

Former Team India opener Virender Sehwag on Wednesday picked Virat Kohli & Co. as the frontrunners in the race to lift the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup in September this year. Sehwag also heaped praise on ace all-rounder Hardik Pandya and stated that the Vadodra lad's return to the squad after an injury will make a huge difference. This comes after several sporting events were severely hit by the novel Coronavirus outbreak but the ICC on Wednesday confirmed that there would be no change in the scheduling of the upcoming T20 World Cup. 

Speaking to a leading news daily, Sehwag said that it was extremely difficult to pick one favourite in a T20 tournament due to its unpredictability, however, Team India are the frontrunners in the race as the whole combination of the team will change with the presence of an all-rounder of Hardik Pandya's calibre. 

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ICC to conduct Men's T20 World Cup as scheduled

Despite the Coronavirus pandemic, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is positive that this year’s Men’s T20 World Cup will go ahead as scheduled. In an official statement, the ICC said that in response to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, the ICC T20 World Cup 2020 Local Organising Committee is monitoring the situation closely with relevant authorities and will continue to do so. The statement further read that the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is scheduled to take place from October 18 to November 15 in seven venues across Australia and the ICC was planning for the event to go ahead as scheduled.

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The 2020 edition of the Men’s T20 World Cup is set to commence from October 18, with a six-day pre-qualifying stage, out of which four teams will qualify for the Super-12, starting October 24.

India’s ODI series against South Africa was cancelled midway last week. BCCI and Cricket South Africa decided to reschedule the India vs South Africa series due to the coronavirus outbreak. England also called off their two-match Test series in Sri Lanka before Australia called off their ODI and T20I series against New Zealand.

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