Rahul Dravid has a perfect reply to Shakib Al Hasan’s ‘not here to win World Cup’ comments

After winning two out of their first three games, India have established themselves as one of the favourites to win the ongoing 20-20 World Cup 2022. However, the T20 format is very unpredictable, and the tables can turn at any point. A loss in any of the remaining Super 12 Stages games can hamper India’s chances of making it to the semi-finals.

Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan, on the other hand, is convinced that they are an inferior team to India. He didn’t hold back in admitting that they aren’t favourites to win the 20-20 World Cup in Australia. And, given their record against India and the quality of their team, he added that beating the Men in Blue on Wednesday in Adelaide would be an “upset.”

“We haven’t come here to win the World Cup, but India have. If we win tomorrow, it will be an upset victory. India are favourites tomorrow,” Shakib said while addressing the media on Tuesday.

We respect them a lot: Rahul Dravid

Later that day, when asked about Shakib’s remark, Rahul Dravid denied that India will enter the game as “favourites,” citing Ireland’s win over England earlier in the tournament as an example. “I think we respect them a lot. I think they’re a very good team. I think this format and this World Cup has really shown us that honestly, you can’t take any team lightly. Ireland showed that against England. We’ve seen enough games in this competition,” he said.

“I think the fact that it is already such a short format. 20 overs is such a short format of the game. The margins of victory and defeat sometimes even if they’re 12 runs, 15 runs, it’s actually just two hits. It’s two hits one way or the other, and actually, that’s the game. So it is already a shortened sort of rushed, noisy format, but it’s very difficult to sometimes say who’s a clear favourite in some of these games,” he added.

“On top of that, I think these conditions. I think these conditions have actually leveled the playing field to a large extent because the boundaries are certainly bigger, and some of those big hits which you sometimes expect in the subcontinent to just go for six and you just know that I’ll be able to make up those runs, later on, it’s not happening that easily. People are getting out.

“I think it’s really been a fantastic tournament from that perspective. Apart from the weather, I think it’s been a terrific tournament in terms of just the nature of the games. No, we certainly don’t take Bangladesh lightly. Our preparation, our planning will be as meticulous as it was against South Africa at Perth. No different,” he added.