Kapil Dev’s advice to Team India: Play as team, not individuals to win T20 World Cup
The Hindu
Kapil Dev emphasizes collective performance over individual brilliance as key to India's T20 World Cup success.
India's first World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev on June 27 said collective performance, not individual brilliance will be the key factor in deciding whether Rohit Sharma's team can end its over-a-decade-long trophy drought by winning the T20 World Cup in the West Indies.
India will take on England in the tournament's semifinal later on June 27, hoping to make the finals where South Africa are in waiting after annihilating Afghanistan.
"Why talk about only Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, or Kuldeep Yadav? Everybody has a role to play. Their job is to win the tournament," Kapil told PTI Videos in an exclusive interview.
"To win a match, an odd person can come out, but to win a tournament everybody has to work together. If we are going to depend on Bumrah or Arshdeep, then you are going to lose it," he asserted.
"Let's talk about the team. That gives you a better perspective rather than the odd player. Yes main player is there and we can go around him. But everybody has to chip in to win the World Cup," he added.
Kapil pointed out that in his 1983 World Cup-winning team, he wasn't the only one who performed.
"Roger Binny, Mohinder Amarnath, Kirti Azad, Yashpal Sharma all came out with match-winning performances. If you start depending on one player it means you are not going to win tournaments more often," he observed.