The 2019 ICC World Cup promises to be a spectacular festival of top quality fifty-over cricket, and India are likely to go into the event as narrow favourites.
According to the implied probabilities available on the bigbetbookmakers.com site, India are favoured by a small margin, over host nation England, with Australia, South Africa and New Zealand ranked in that order, and Afghanistan estimated to be the tournament outsiders.
This year will see the twelfth edition of a tournament that began in England back in 1975. Along the way, it has seen a number of format changes, not all of which have been welcomed and the alterations made for 2019 have been more controversial than most. Only ten teams will be taking part, in a single Group stage, followed by semi-finals and a final. As there are now officially twelve Test playing nations, this will be the first World Cup in which not all Test nations are taking part. It will also be the first not to feature any Associate Members.
But while the absence of the likes of Ireland, Zimbabwe, UAE, the Netherlands and others have made the tournament arguably less diverse, the fact that all ten teams will play one another should ensure a higher standard of cricket than is often the case in the early stages of the World Cup.
India have won the tournament twice: in 1983 and in 2011, and they are once again likely to go into the World Cup with a batting-heavy line-up that features an array of breath-taking stroke players, led by Virat Kohli, and including the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant. But they can also boast a battery of dangerous seam bowlers, as well as plenty of depth in the spin bowling department, making them perhaps the most complete team in the tournament.
Having seen what the Indian bowlers can do in English conditions last summer, few people will risk writing them off this time round, despite the fact that their batsmen can struggle in the seam and swing-favouring climate. Of course, home advantage will be in England’s favour, as will the fact that they have been one of the best fifty over teams in the world for the last four years, with Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes and others playing a brand of dynamic cricket. While their bowling can sometimes let them down, this is an England team capable of chasing almost any target.
Of the other principle challengers, South Africa appear to be heading in the right direction in this format, though they will badly miss A B De Villiers, one of the greatest ever limited overs batsmen, who retired last year. New Zealand are still a force in this format, although not as strong as when they reached the final of the 2015 World Cup, while Australia go into this tournament at a low ebb, after struggling in fifty over cricket for the last year or so.
Further down the list of contenders, Pakistan, who have a history of upsetting the odds in limited overs cricket, and who have twice won major tournaments in England, shouldn’t be written off, and neither should a resurgent West Indies team, which is likely to be packed with hard-hitting batsmen who have made their names in Twenty20 cricket. It promises to be a thrilling tournament, and a real treat for cricket fans all over the world.
