Buttler picks hosts India as favourites for T20 World Cup

Ahmedabad: England white-ball vice-captain Jos Buttler feels hosts India, who are strong in every format of the game, are favourites for this year’s T20 World Cup.
India, who won the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, will host the tournament in October and November.

“Going into World Cups, you probably look at hosts nations one specially as strong as India who are going to be favourites for that tournament,” Buttler, in interaction with British media on Tuesday, said.

“There are many excellent teams, in the last few World Cups hosts nations have performed very well. India is of course strong in every format and T20 is no different and especially playing at home I see India as the favourites,” Buttler added.

England and India are slated to play in a five-match T20 series, starting here on Friday and the Buttler feels it is the perfect opportunity for his side to get acclimatised to the World Cup conditions.

“It’s vital for us to play and hopefully you wanna win that series and take that confidence and gel together as a group and have that clarity ahead of the World Cup.

“So, it’s a fantastic opportunity for us as a side to be playing against India in World Cup conditions,” he added.

“This is a great benefit for us. Being here and to play in Ahemdabad in the brand new stadium which may play a big part in the World Cup and no one has played here before. So it’s a big advantage for us to learn about conditions,” Buttler said.