Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming believes India have ticked all the right boxes in the US leg of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. The Rahul Dravid-coached side lived up to their favourites tag with impressive wins over Ireland, Pakistan and the United States of America. Champions in the 2007 edition of the ICC event, India opted to take a brave call by keeping Yashasvi Jaiswal on the bench to appoint Virat Kohli as Rohit Sharma's opening partner at the T20 World Cup.

Kohli entered the grandest stage after a blockbuster season in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) skipper smashed the most runs in the 2024 edition to claim the prestigious Orange Cap. Though Kohli is preferred over Jaiswal at the top, the former India skipper has failed to fire for Rohit's men in the group stage. Kohli achieved forgetful scores of 1, 4 and 0.

Speaking to ESPNCricinfo amid the Super 8 stage of the T20 World Cup, former New Zealand skipper Fleming admitted that India had to make some tough decisions to come up with a winning formula. The ex-New Zealand opener also credited head coach Dravid and the selectors for picking a team worthy of playing the summit clash of the ICC event. The T20 World Cup is Dravid’s final assignment as the head coach of the Men In Blue.

'India had to make some hard calls'

“They had to make some hard calls while Jaiswal was a great player, that's leaving out top quality players is always difficult... But I like the job they've done, they've got through. This is a team that in some ways is picked for the finals in my view, it's a team that has spinners that can dominate, it has players that can dominate spin and we've seen spin in the West Indies play quite a big part, not so much in New York,” Fleming said.

Superstars Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav had a fruitful opening practice session in the Caribbean leg of the T20 World Cup. Batting icon Kohli was the first batter to hit the nets with all-rounder Jadeja. Kohli enjoyed throwdowns for at least 30 minutes before the arrival of Jadeja and Hardik Pandya. India will meet Afghanistan in their opening Super 8 fixture at the revamped Kensington Oval on Thursday.

'I think they've got job done'

"So, I think they've got job done and they've got quite smartly a view of mind, this is how we want to play the key games now going into hopefully the semi-finals and final. They've picked a team that they think may be playing a turning track, this will give us our best chance at the top and has good balance and we've seen that sort of in stops and starts and it's just been because of conditions but I think they're in good shape," Fleming added.