AB warns India about England

South African AB De Villiers during an event in the city yesterday

Former South African captain AB de Villiers wants India to beat Pakistan in the final and win ICC T20 World Cup in Melbourne on Sunday. However, De Villiers, 38, cautioned Rohit Sharma & Co to be well prepared to counter a dangerous England in the semi-finals to be played at Adelaide on Thursday.

"I would like to see India win [the final], obviously against Pakistan. I think it will be the biggest final of all time," De Villiers told mid-day.

However, the batting great, who has 20,014 international runs under his belt from 420 matches across three formats, reckoned that Jos Buttler's English team will pose a big challenge against India in the semis.

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"India's biggest obstacle, I feel, is the semi-final against England. England are a very dangerous team and they have everything in their artillery to win the World Cup. So if India can get past them, they will handle whoever is in the final," remarked De Villiers on the sidelines of Last Man Stands' India Super League event in South Mumbai. Pakistan take on New Zealand in the first semi-final at Sydney today.

De Villiers, famous for his big-hitting skills that caused experts to call him a 360-degree batsman, said India's in-form batsman Suryakumar Yadav, 32, (who has scored 225 runs from five games in this World Cup), will be a great player if he will show more consistency in the next couple of years. "I started [playing cricket] much younger than him [Suryakumar]. So I was already thrown into the deep end of international cricket. The way he's playing now, there are a lot of similarities."