Sachin Tendulkar picks his semi-finalists for the ICC T20 World Cup, names New Zealand as ‘Dark Horse’

Batting great Sachin Tendulkar said that he would want the Rohit Sharma-led side to become the T20 World Cup 2022 champions and also named India, Pakistan, Australia and England as his favorites to reach the semi-finals of the ongoing tournament. While India, Pakistan and South Africa are all part of Group 2 in the Super 12, Australia and England are in Group 1.

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The former India captain also backed New Zealand and South Africa to spring up a surprise.

“New Zealand is a dark horse, and so is South Africa because they know the conditions. Pitches are more or less the same, that’s why I am saying the same. But the top four would be there, the other two are dark horses who may sneak in from the back door.” said the batting great.

India have faced two defeats in their last three meetings against Pakistan and will be aiming for a turnaround this year. India were comprehensively thrashed by ten wickets when they locked horns with Pakistan in the T20 World Cup last year.

When asked about the recent upsets in the first round of the T20 World Cup, Tendulkar maintained that T20 cricket doesn’t give you time to recover and thus associate teams can stun anyone.

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“See, the gap is bridged only in shorter formats. The moment you get into longer formats… I was watching Namibia and the Netherlands yesterday, and they played good cricket,” said Tendulkar.

India are without the services of Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja for the tournament and their absence could hurt their chances. Bumrah has been ruled out of action due to a back problem while Jadeja is out with a knee injury.