"They Use This Strategy...": Ravichandran Ashwin On Rivals Calling India Favourites For World Cup

It is quite common for experts and cricketers to hail the Indian cricket team as ‘favourites' ahead of any major International Cricket Council (ICC) tournament. The situation is not much different with the ICC World Cup 2023 just around the corner and considering the fact that India are the hosts this time, it comes as no surprise that most people are counting them as major title contenders. However, veteran India skipper Ravichandran Ashwin had a rather interesting point to make regarding the ‘favourites' tag. He believes that it is a tactic used by cricketers around the world to reduce the pressure on themselves and put the Indian team under the spotlight.

“I know people around the world of cricket will keep saying India are favourites. In fact, all the cricketers around the world will use this as a strategy and say India are favourites before every ICC event. They use this strategy to reduce the pressure on themselves and put extra pressure on us. India could be on one of the favourites,” Ashwin said in a video posted on his YouTube channel.

“But Australia are also a powerhouse. We spoke about the second ODI loss in Barbados. I mentioned that we should back Team India and send them pressure free to the World Cup. Most of them agreed but some of them were like, ‘Looks like he is already being cautious about what will happen if Team India doesn't win and blaming everything on the fans'."

"See we should realise that one cannot shift the blame on the fans. I also understand. What I meant was that fans are the most important stakeholders of the team. Fans can change the entire vibe of a cricket match. Every time the home team is having that momentum, it will be really difficult for the away team when the support is huge.