Suresh Raina has urged the Indian cricket team to win the upcoming T20 World Cup for the skipper Virat Kohli who will captain India in T20 international cricket for one last time in this World Cup.
Kohli had taken over the captaincy of India’s white-ball teams from his predecessor MS Dhoni in 2017 and while he has captained the team very well in bilateral series around the world, he has not won an ICC trophy as captain, something that Suresh Raina wants him to achieve in this T20 World Cup.
Virat Kohli announced a few weeks ago that he was stepping down as the T20 captain of India after the T20 World Cup 2021, but will continue playing T20 cricket in future and will also continue captaining India’s ODI and Test sides. Kohli, a few days later, stepped down as RCB captain as well, citing workload management.
With T20 World Cup being Kohli’s last tournament as the T20 captain of India, the Indian fans and the Indian team would want him to leave the T20 captaincy on a high.
Suresh Raina has played a number of games with Virat Kohli in national colors
Suresh Raina, who played a lot of cricket with Virat Kohli and won the ODI World Cup 2011 and the Champions Trophy 2013 with him, wrote on the ICC website that the Indian team should win this T20 World Cup for Virat Kohli.
“For India, the message at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is simple — do it for Virat Kohli. It will probably be his last time at this tournament as captain, so it’s very important for him to make everyone believe we can do it and for us to get behind him,” Raina wrote on the ICC website.
Raina believes the fact that all the Indian players, who have been picked for the T20 World Cup, have played a handful of IPL games on UAE surfaces and under extreme pressure recently, their preparation for the tournament is very good.
India has not won the T20 World Cup for a very long time. They had won the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2007, but after that, they have not lifted the trophy again. In the last two editions in 2014 and 2016, India were knocked out from final and semi-final respectively.
