VVS Laxman is confident that India will defend the Champions Trophy

Former Indian cricketer VVS Laxman has backed the defending champions India to not just beat arch-rivals Pakistan in their Champions Trophy opener, but also not let any other team take the trophy from them. India have had a great start to their title defence with comfortable victories over New Zealand and Bangladesh in both the warm-up games at The Oval.

In the match against the Kiwis, the Indian bowlers were at their best, bundling the team for 189 runs. India won that match by 45 runs through D/L method in a rain curtailed game. Against Bangladesh, India put up an all-round performance with a great show by both the batting and bowling department. India embarrassed their neighbours by 240 runs to be high on confidence.

“I am very confident that India will do well in the Champions Trophy and will defend the title,” Laxman said on Wednesday.

Laxman impressed with performance in warm-up games 

“Especially, the way they played in the last two warm-up games. The batsmen are in form. I am very impressed with the way Shikhar Dhawan batted in both the games. Even Dinesh Karthik used the opportunity against Bangladesh brilliantly,” said Laxman.

He acknowledged how outstanding the bowlers were in both the practice games, bowling accurate lengths aggressively and picking up wickets.

“The bowlers were just outstanding in the two games. They were bowling attacking lines and lengths, looking to be aggressive and looking to pick up wickets.”

Laxman was a part of the Indian team that lost to Pakistan in the tournament in 2004. The Pakistani team edged out India by 3 wickets to enter the semi-finals of the tournament. India had the worst start possible batting first as Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag all departed for a combined score of 28. However, Laxman is confident that the current team will make up for that humiliating loss.

India will begin their Champions Trophy campaign against Pakistan on June 4 in Birmingham, after which they will play Sri Lanka and South Africa.