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'India are the favourites and that puts a lot of pressure on them'

March 08, 2016 22:35 IST

Indian Captain MS Dhoni and teammates Suresh Raina, Shikhar Dhawan, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya

IMAGE: Indian Captain MS Dhoni and teammates Suresh Raina, Shikhar Dhawan, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya during a media interaction in Kolkata. Photograph: PTI.

New Zealand all-rounder Grant Elliott has said that hosts India are clear favourites going into the ICC World T20 but that will also put enormous pressure on the Men In Blue.

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"India obviously go in as tournament favourites, which I guess, puts a lot of pressure on them. Having home support has its advantages, but there are negative points also.

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"Especially in India I guess the expectations are high," Elliott said during team's Open Media Session.

New Zealand duo of Grant Elliot and Colin Munro

IMAGE: New Zealand duo of Grant Elliot and Colin Munro pose for media during a press conference in Mumbai. Photograph: PTI.

Elliott, who will be playing in his first World T20 event, said his stint in the inaugural Pakistan Super League, held in the UAE, for Quetta Gladiators was beneficial.

"Pakistan Super League was great. It was a very good experience and my first experience with franchise cricket. Nathan McCullum came over a little bit later, but we reached the finals. It was a very good tournament and some really high quality players played in it."

Talking about the upcoming World T20 opener against India at Nagpur, Elliott said while the home team had world class players, his team, too, had men to play well in these conditions.

"India are obviously a world class team with guys (spin bowlers) like (Ravindra) Jadeja, (Ravichandran) Ashwin, and back-up bowlers like (Suresh) Raina and Yuvraj (Singh). We will wait and see how the conditions are like. We have got batsman suited to these conditions."