Rajkot, February 14
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah on Wednesday confirmed that skipper Rohit Sharma will be captaining Men in Blue in the ICC T20 World Cup being held in West Indies and USA this year and expressed optimism that Team India will win the coveted T20 cricket prize and end their ICC trophy drought of over a decade.
Jay Shah was at the Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) stadium, which has been renamed after former BCCI and SCA secretary Niranjan Shah ahead of the third Test between India and England, which will be taking place at this venue only.
Speaking at the event, Jay opened up on India's heartbreaking loss to Australia in the final of ICC Cricket World Cup at home last year after a dominant 10-match winning streak, saying that despite not getting the trophy home, India won hearts with their winning streak.
"We may have lost the final of World Cup 2023. But we won the hearts of everyone by winning 10 matches in a row. I am confident that India will lift the 2024 T20 World Cup under Rohit Sharma's captaincy at Barbados," said the BCCI secretary.
India's last major trophy win was back in 2013, when they beat England to win the ICC Champions Trophy in the UK. Since then, India has shown incredible performances across ICC Cricket World Cups, ICC T20 World Cups and the finals of the ICC World Test Championship, but fallen short every time of capturing the gold.
The tournament will kick off on June 1 and will be co-hosted by the West Indies and the US. India has been placed in Group A alongside Ireland, Pakistan, Canada and the US.
The Men in Blue will open their campaign against Ireland on June 5. Their second game of the tournament will be against arch-rival Pakistan on June 9. The final two games will be against Canada and USA on June 12 and June 15 respectively.
This time 20 teams will take part in the T20 World Cup which is more than the 16 that took part in the 2022 tournament in Australia. The top two teams from each group will proceed to the Super 8 stage.
The 55 games of the competition will be played across six different venues in the West Indies (Kensington Oval, Barbados; Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Trinidad; Providence Stadium,
Guyana; Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua; Darren Sammy Cricket Ground, St Lucia; Arnos Vale Stadium, St Vincent) and three venues in the USA (Eisenhower Park, New York; Lauderhill, Florida; and Grand Prairie, Texas).
The Group Stage will be played from June 1 to June 18. The Super 8 stage will be played from June 19 to June 24.
The final four stage - semi-finals will be played on June 26 and June 27. The tournament will conclude on June 29.
Group B consists of the last two winners of the Men's T20 World Cup in England and Australia, with the pair to take on Namibia, Scotland and Oman.
The West Indies are placed into Group C alongside New Zealand, Afghanistan, Uganda and Papua New Guinea, while Group D sees South Africa, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Netherlands and Nepal fixtured against each other.