T20 World Cup 2021: Nasser Hussain highlights 'two problems' that could hurt Team India

Former England skipper Nasser Hussain reckons that despite having a formidable squad, Team India's batting line-up will be exposed in the knockout stage of the T20 World Cup. Many cricket experts have already picked Team India as their favourites to win the T20 World Cup. However, Nasser Hussain stated that Team India are not clear favourites as Virat Kohli & Co lack plan B. Team India will kickstart their T20 World Cup campaign with the Super 12 stage on October 24 at the Dubai International Stadium. 

Speaking to Sky Sports, Nasser Hussain pointed that when Team India's top-order fails, they don't generally have plan B to recover from early jolts. "When they get to a stage you look at the last World Cup against New Zealand and suddenly it's a low-scoring game and they don't have a Plan B. They got rolled over a very good New Zealand side. So that's going to be an issue for them," said Hussain. 

"The other problem with India is that they are so good at the top with Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul boss games and the middle order hasn't had much of a hit. You get to a knockout or final and suddenly they are at 30 for 3 because the standard has gone up and the middle order hasn't had a hit and you go now you need to do it," he added.

"They are favourites. I wouldn't say clear favourites simply because of the format. The shorter the game, things can happen," Hussain further stated. 

'Team India's record in the late ICC tournaments is not good', says Nasser Hussain

Outlining Team India's struggle in knock out stage, Hussain said, "Their record of late in the ICC tournaments is not good and that's something they are going to have to deal with with the weight of expectations of the Indian audience and fans heavy on their shoulders when they get to a knockout game, all of a sudden you cannot afford a mistake and that's going to be a thing for them.”

"When they get into a knockout game all of a sudden they can't afford any mistake and that's because on paper they have everything. They have some of the greatest white-ball batters. Depth in the batting, got the fast bowlers and the mystery spin and a mentor on the sidelines in MS Dhoni," added Hussain.

"These are the areas India have to focus on. On paper, they have pretty much every base covered," Hussain further stated. 

Team India T20 World Cup schedule and squad

• October 24: India vs Pakistan (Time 7:30 PM IST  Venue: Dubai)
• October 31:  India vs New Zealand (Time 7:30 PM IST  Venue: Dubai)
• November 3: India vs Afghanistan (Time 7:30 PM IST  Venue: Abu Dhabi)
• November 5: India vs Scotland (Time 7:30 PM IST  Venue: Dubai)
• November 8:  India vs Namibia (Time 7:30 PM IST  Venue: Dubai)

Squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami

Reserves: Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Axar Patel

Image: AP/@BCCi/Twitter