"Fair play to them... it feels right" - Nasser Hussain defends India's 2024 T20 World Cup final spot amid 'bias' accusations

Former England captain Nasser Hussain has doffed his hat to India for surging to the final of the 2024 men's T20 World Cup. The Men in Blie scripted a 68-run win over Jos Buttler's team, amid accusations of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) bias for India.

Before the tournament, ICC had confirmed that irrespective of how India reached the semi-finals, they'd play the second contest, the day game in Guyana, instead of the evening match in Trinidad. This was supposedly done to allow Indian fans at home, who bring most of the revenue, to watch the game at prime time while also helping the traveling fans make their arrangements in advance.

When India did make it through, questions were raised on how Guyana historically offered a spin-friendly pitch, for which they could also start preparing earlier. However, Hussain believes India deserves to be in the summit clash as a reward for staying unbeaten at the 2024 T20 World Cup across various conditions.

"The narrative will be that everything on Thursday was geared towards India reaching the T20 World Cup final — the surface, the venue, all seemed to be in their favour," he wrote in his column for Daily Mail. "But if you look at things in greater detail, they came into this semi-final against England having just beaten 50-over world champions Australia on a bouncier, good pitch in St Lucia, and reverted to a lower, slower pitch and won comfortably. Fair play to them for the way they played and it feels right that India and South Africa, the two unbeaten sides in the tournament, go head to head in Barbados on Saturday."

The match didn't have a reserve day either which meant that had it been washed out, India would have qualified for the final thanks to their higher finish in the Super-Eights. But the ICC' allotted double-than-usual buffer time for the game came in handy as a 40-over contest was completed despite early rain halts.

"The one issue you could level at Buttler..." - Nasser Hussain points out England's wrong call

England also won the toss. By putting India to bat first, they kept history on their side; they had never lost a semi-final while batting second while India's all defeats in ICC tournaments since 2021 had come while batting first.

But it worked in India's favor as, like how Rohit Sharma guessed, the wicket got slower in the second innings and India's braver approach worked wonders. This, Hussain believes, is the only question worth asking from Buttler.

"The one issue you could level at Buttler was his decision to insert India after winning the toss," Hussain wrote in his Daily Mail column. "Perhaps with rain around he was thinking about Duckworth Lewis, and it was a bit damp up front which might have given them a better chance of their opening bowlers Reece Topley and Jofra Archer nicking people off. But it should not distract from the fact England lost to a team who have had all bases covered in this competition."

India will play South Africa in the final on Saturday, June 29.