“Anybody can win on their day” - Adil Rashid on the T20 World Cup

Ahead of the second T20I match against India, England spinner Adil Rashid has stressed that T20 cricket is a peculiar game and any team can win on a given day.

Ahead of the first T20I clash, England star Jos Buttler had opined that India were the favorites for the T20 World Cup. However, England had a near-perfect match at Ahmedabad. Eoin Morgan's men executed their plans to perfection and starved the Indian batsmen during the power-play.

England went on to win the match and take a 1-0 lead in the series rather easily, defeating the hosts by a margin of eight wickets with 27 balls to spare.

When Adil Rashid was asked if anything had changed regarding Buttler's prediction following India's drubbing at the hands of England, the spinner replied:

"T20 cricket is a funny game, you know. Anybody can win on their day. Any good team depending on how their batsmen perform and how their bowlers perform. You know, India are a very strong side. So are we. The other nations as well, there are plenty of strong sides. So, you know, if we fully believe in ourselves, stick to our strengths, keep developing, keep working on our game, we stand a chance."

Adil Rashid looking toward "massive achievement"

England ICC World Cup Victory Celebration

Adil Rashid was also part of the England side that lifted the first World Cup in their history. The fact that it happened on home turf in 2019 makes that memory all the more special for most of the players.

When asked about how great it’d be to win both the 50-over and T20 World Cups consecutively, the 33-year-old said that "it’d be a massive achievement."

“It would mean a lot, not just for me personally, but the whole team. Especially, you know for the past five-six years how good we’ve been with our mindset of playing an attacking brand of cricket. To win the 50-over World Cup and follow that up with the T20, I think that’d be a massive achievement."

Adil Rashid will be in action once again as India takes on England in the second match of the five-match T20I series at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad.