The China Mail - India are rightly favourites, but anything can happen in T20: Brook

The previous two winners of the T20 World Cup -- India won in 2024, England in 2022 -- will go head-to-head in a blockbuster semi-final at Mumbai's famed Wankhede stadium on Thursday night.

The match will be played in a cauldron-like atmosphere -- temperatures are forecast to be in the mid-30s Celsius with a capacity crowd of 35,000 India fans raising the roof.

Hundreds of millions more will follow on TV and streaming sites across the cricket-obsessed nation.

Asked if it gets any better than that, Brook said: "It's up there for sure.

"It's a dream come true for most of us to play in a World Cup semi-final against the home nation on a very iconic ground," the England captain told reporters at the Wankhede stadium, minutes before his side's final training session ahead of the semi-final.

"We're obviously going into the game very confident. We're playing some good cricket.

"We haven't quite played that perfect performance, but I feel like it's just around the corner.

"Hopefully it's tomorrow night and we go out there and we just play with freedom, play brave and look to take it to them as much as we can."

It is the third T20 World Cup in a row that England will have played India in the semi-finals and each time the winners went on to lift the trophy.

In 2022, England crushed India by 10 wickets in Adelaide and went on to beat Pakistan in the Melbourne final.

Two years ago India won in Guyana by a similarly dominant 68 runs before downing South Africa in Barbados.

"I do believe that India were favorites from the start of the competition, as they should be on their home soil, with home crowds and knowing the venues better than anyone else," said Brook.

"But T20 is such a fickle game, anything can happen."

England experienced a hostile crowd at the Wankhede in their first match of the tournament when they beat Nepal in a final-ball thriller.

"We've won tight games, which in World Cups proved to be very important," said Brook.

England were shaky in the group phase but came through the Super Eights with brilliantly executed wins over Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand when all three games could easily have been lost.

"We've won games which we probably shouldn't have won, and it just feels like we've never really been out of any game so far," said Brook.

"It holds you in good stead in these world competitions."

K.Leung--ThChM