India have not put a foot wrong in their authoritative run in the Cricket World Cup so far, winning all of their eight group games so far. The Rohit Sharma-led will take on Netherlands on Sunday in the last league match, before squaring off New Zealand/Pakistan in the semi-final next week. Former West Indies captain Vivian Richards said while India might have the mindset to win the World Cup this time, a change in approach could prove to be costly.
“In terms of this year’s competition, India have a mindset that they can go all the way playing like this. That absolutely should be their mindset and would be mine if I was in that dressing room – let’s go out with all guns blazing. That approach has worked so far and if that changes, things may go astray,” Viv Richards told ICC.
Richards, however, praised India’s form in the tournament, and also had some advice for them, in how to deal with ‘fears of a bad game in the semi-final’.
“I believe they can go all the way unbeaten, which is really something to strive for. There may be some fears of ‘we have played so well so far, there may be a bad game around the corner in the semi-final’. They have to try and nullify those and banish any negative thoughts”, he added.
The hosts have streamrolled every team in their path, with both batters and bowlers ticking the boxes. While Virat Kohli is leading the batting charts for India with 543 runs in eight matches, Mohammed Shami leads the pack in the bowling department with 16 scalps in just four games.
India will look to maintain their winning momentum with a win over Nethelands at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Prasidh Krishna, Suryakumar Yadav
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