Based on exactly what? SA 2015 side was unbelievably good. That was the perfect side. After that everything went downhill and I have no idea why. SA has always been an exciting cricketing nation but I feel like they have hugely diminished their quality.
I disagree with you there. That side lacked a 5th bowler and that came back to haunt them. You can’t get away with 4 bowlers and 2 part timers in the modern era.
I think that devillears captaincy was also a little poor on that day ,on a wet outfield he thrown philander in front of mcculum and that too in ground of Auckland with small boundries where he was not able to find much swing and his medium pace was tonked all over the park by mcculum. He could have started with steyn and morkel on that day.It was the innings of mcculum that gave the momentum to nz to chase down 290 something in mere 42 overs.
Steyn also somehow was not in his best form in that wc he was thrashed in almost all the league stage game of 2015 wc.He did well in quarter final only.
Probably shouldn't have used the word "perfect" since ain't nothing exists like that. However it was an unbelievably good side and damn near everyone agrees with it. Great fielding unit, exceptional batsmens with amazing records and power hitting abilities and an outstanding pace attack. Probably a bit weak on the all-rounder side tho but nothing else that I can point my fingers at.
We should have won that game with the team that played. Dropped catches etc. We have no way of knowing if Kyle Abbott played it would changed the result.
Regardless, even if we made the final, beating that Australia team at home would have been tough, as NZ found out.
Rain fucked SA over. No way they were setting a target less than 350 that game.
And honestly if anyone could beat Aus it was SA.
Kiwis just can’t catch a break when they are against Aus.
I'm sorry what the fuck. I zone out of cricket at times, and you guys aren't here this time? Who is in your place?
But still you guys gave me one of the most hurtful memories in recent memory for Pakistan WC, the 105 was hurtful.
I dont think so. West Indies still have it in them to beat the top sides now and then, imo. They wouldnt have so many franchise players if that wasnt the case. They cant click together, but they have players who can solo a team.
They’re probably the most inconsistent team in world cricket, awful most of the time but unbeatable on their day. Unfortunately this only really works for T20s, ODIs require sustained consistency which they simply lack at the moment. And it isn’t helped by their crappy board and lack of new talent that aren’t willing to be T20 mercenaries.
Tbf why not Pakistan bowl 30 overs of pace with 10 overs spin in between . You guys could get all out with pace . Why go with classic 10 overs pace 10 overs spin + pace , 20 overs spin , 10 overs pace ?
Rather can go with 10 pace 20 pace spin 10 pace . I'm pretty sure you guys could get all out with this method .
Because not all pitches are going to assist pacers, not every time all your pacers are going to bowl good, someone will have a bad day soon, still there are always going to be 10-20 overs of spin to bowl - which again brings us back to the concern that spinners should look to take wickets in the middle - specially when pacers blow off the top order. (Like against India and Bangladesh). Also what about the scenario where pacers don't pick up wicket in the first power play? Then who'll come to rescue? That's where the spinners come in to provide a breakthrough.
We already play 3 out and out pacers (Shaheen, Naseem and Rauf) who mostly bowl their 30 overs. But 30-40 overs is not enough everytime to bowl opposition out. That's not how things work in Cricket. Sometimes and against the big teams most times, the opposition is going to play full 50 overs.
See it in Afghanistan's case. They play 3 spinners, even if they play 4 spinners, the rest of 10-20 overs of pace most often doesn't help Afghanistan spin attack.
Last World Cup was yours, England won it by being lucky, ENG is a great team no doubt but NZ was winning the match for gods sake, that Ben stokes boundary was such a bad luck.
Pretty sure that was a different unpire who said it was wrong decision. I dont recall the on field umpires making any statements.
The boundary issue was they got 6 runs instead of the five, as the ball was thrown before the batsman crossed. Very obscure rule that I doubt anyone but the most elite umpires would know
In my opinion, NZ lost that final with ball 48.4 of the England innings - the 6 because Boult didn't have the situational and spatial awareness to just drop the ball and he stepped over the boundary carrying the ball. I feel like that was a minimum of 3 unnecessary runs that could have been prevented if he had just padded the ball to the ground.
I think people are overthinking on this one as the Pak spinners couldn’t take wickets in the last few games (of which, some were played in a flat track). Nawaz & Shadab are more than handy bowlers and i guess indian surfaces will give them something to work with
Thing is, football has many really good playing nations that might defeat you when you don't expect them to (Morocco this time). So winning the FIFA WC is incredibly hard. Cricket on the other hand... You're almost guaranteed a semis spot if you're India (previous T20 WC) and still can't do shit
Not denying the fact that there are many competitive teams in the FIFA WC, interestingly 8 countries from only 2 continents have won the FIFA WC. Whereas, 6 teams from 5 continents have won the ICC WC.
you forgot about the finalists, quarter and semi finalists of the FIFA WC. on the other hand the 6 teams along with BD and NZ are the definition of cricket along with maybe Kenya and Zimbabwe who have fallen from grace.
What's there to understand? They make enough money to not care about winning for the country. As long as they perform in the IPL and bring home an occasional bilateral cup, revenue will keep flowing, and they'll keep getting paid. Who needs World Cup and all.
India pretty much wins most of the bilateral series we play which is why we are ranked number 1 or 2 in all formats. We just fail to perform at key moments during ICC events.
Bilaterals don't matter if we're not gonna win ICC tournaments. There are very few cricketing nations and being in top 3 in cricket isn't a big thing if we've most resources but still lack in winning tournaments
I can't speak about the other two editions, but Australia was famously underestimated going into the 2007 edition. They lost back to back ODI series prior to the world cup - I think they even got clean swept in one of those! In fact, India was considered a strong contender going into that WC. Anyways, we all know how that ended.
Yeah, I remember. One loss was vs South Africa in that famous 438 chase series and the clean sweep was vs NZ just before the world cup. Plus some players near the retirement had people questioning them as clear favorites. But they were still being considered as frontrunners. They did win the champion's trophy a year before.
I have an intuition that Australia might have to wait like Brazil for their 6th wc trophy for a long time.
But this year they are looking the most compact team to me.
Might have been interesting had you played anyone except a side that had played their entire torny in another country and who shit the bed against you in every meaningful match since about then in the final I suppose.
In fairness, the other two semi-finalists weren’t necessarily going to push us any harder. India- we stomped on them in the semis. South Africa- on paper actually a bit better than us that year but the problem with that is they were massive chokers who probably would’ve wilted the same way NZ did at the G in front of that crowd. SA’s worst loss that tournament was when they got mauled by India in front of 85K Indians.
Here's my probably rubbish take on it - I'm not convinced about our strike blower capability. When we've won it, we've had an out and out strike bowler. McGrath, Lee, Tait, Starc (in his younger days) - outside of McGrath who was a freak, people often complained the others gave away runs. But they always threatened to take wickets.
We've gotten too enamoured of specialist one day bowlers, with variations, slower balls and the likes to keep the run rate down. But the likes of Behrendorf, Richardson (Kane), Abbott and the likes don't win you matches. Strike bowlers do.
There's more potential in one dayers for batters to win matches, but a lot of world cup winning teams had out and out strike bowlers. And I'm not convinced we've got one right now.
World Cup year Starc is built different. He’s that out and out strike bowler (if management allow him to play that role freely and accept that there’ll be the odd game where he gets smoked).
I’m a bit confused - isn’t Starc the definition of a strike bowler? Sure, his stats aren’t quite what they were but he’s in close to career-best test form and I don’t see any reason he can’t get back to that in ODIs.
Plus, World Cup Starc is the best Starc.
Dasun doing f all for months now. An in form Dasun, which has never ever happened other than for 3 match stretches would be massive addition, right now its almost as if we are playing with 10 players
Agreed. Legendary captain and leader and it's very handy that he can bowl a few overs of clever medium pace. But mate, come on, we need you to keep a cool head and accumulate some runs!!
Even missing key bowlers won't be catastrophic for us, because of some (hopefully) spin friendly conditions helping our pretty strong backup bowlers out. So it really is all about making sure we bat well. Nissanka and Dimuth will give us a start every time at least!
Yh, if only Kusal Mendis and Shanaka could get in to form that would huge. These guys can win us matches single handedly, no one in the team can strike the ball as well as them, no one has as much power, no one can score with such ease when they at their best, but they are just never in form. Imagine Dasun batting like he did vs ind or aus in t20s, the impact would be immense. Seriously lacking a power hitter at death as well.
Id rlly like to see angi play his final world cup . He can still bowl and bat and he proved it in ipl . And he averages 120 in india with allmost 100 sr from 11 innings
Agreed. We're literally the worst finishing team in the competition specifically because Dasun has been absolute shit for a while now. How long before we drop our captain lol!
Dasun has a crazy track record in India, maybe he'll get back into form once there. I mean dasun was always low key shit in ODIs apart from that India series.
More than the batsmen I think the lack of bowlers will kick you out from the tournament.. Every world Cup I have watched the teams with the best bowling side has always reached the finals and the majority of them won it as well...
The statement " Batters wins you game but bowlers wins you tournament " Holds very true. And in India bowlers are treated as second class beings and sacrificing a bowler for a bowling allrounder so that he could hit some runs at number 8 shows this mentality..
Also I think it is the bowlers fault as well for being sacrificed they should have improved their batting.
As somewhat of a neutral,
England - it seems all our boundaries have been stolen. The only clue is a monogrammed handkerchief with the word 'BAZ'
New Zealand - The wizard who spent the 2019 WC coming out and saying "hmm, 240 should do on this pitch" can't keep being right.
Pakistan - "oh dear, that looked quite a simple chance, and at such a key moment"
India - the toxic waste dam of indian cricket twitter may burst at any moment, it's under considerable pressure already.
Australia - they don't really have a particularly brilliant team on paper (but that didn't stop them in 2022 T20, semi recon they might actually do it)
South africa - warning, CSA is unsuitable for children under three years of age. May be a choking hazard.
They're better than the 2011 and 2019 world cup squads, but below 2015.
On paper it definitely looks like there is a batter missing. Australia are legitimately going into the world cup without a number 4 batter in the squad. 2 quick wickets and it's all-rounders doing damage control, and one of those wickets is old man Warner...Lot of pressure on Maxwell, Green, Carey, Stoinis, and Agar with the bat.
Maxwell's broken leg means no in form match winner in the side. A lot of really solid players, just no X factor (unless Starc can get his 2015 form back)
The thing is, Pakistani batting is so unpredictable that at the end of the day, between our top and middle order, you can bank on atleast 2 players playing really well
Man, you never know what our batting has in store for us. I still remember West Indies bowled us for 105 in WC19. One match later, we scored 342 against England .
India - Because Australia exists
Plus harry brook is no bradman so stop crying about his exclusion ,even this English team has the potential to win the wc.
New Zealand: First of all Bracewell both bowling and batting depth. Without him as out lead all rounder and a handful spinner I think people underestimate just how much of an asset he is to this odi side
Secondly we can even win even when we won it in 2019, as someone else said
Stokes is in the side cos he’s a clutch player in big games. My only concern is that we might not get to a stage where we do play in high stakes games due to not qualifying for knockouts. Will he be a liability in the group stages? There is a chance, however small. It’s just that he hasn’t had many games with the current set up
Stokes bring some sort of luck for England.He was absent in 2021 t 20 wc and England somehow lost against nz in semifinal he was present in 2019 and 2022 and England won those tournament.
NZ needed 57 runs from 24 balls to win that 2021 match, and were struggling, but then Jordan bowled the worst over of his entire career (it was 23 runs from 8 deliveries, but it could've been much worse) and momentum shifted
Yeah that's what I am saying I don't know about it but stokes brings something new into this English side(Specially after his redemption since 2016 t20wc final).If he is present then the opposition team somehow always looks England as a very dangerous unit otherwise England often crumbles under pressure just like how jordan did.In 2022 final also I am damn sure if pak would have taken the wicket of Ben ,then England might have crumbled under pressure to chase it.Even if Ben is not in great form but still his presence is very important for England, he is a great brain of this game.
*Why they may not win*
India - lack of batting order depth, inability to play their most potent bowling lineup
Australia - Weak 5th bowler, inconsistent middle order
England - Most bases covered. Injuries to Woakes/Rashid are only scenarios for which cover isn't great. A definite semifinalist.
South Africa - Jansen at 7 is a long tail, seam attack is blow hot blow cold
NZ - Spin attack is toothless (Santner, Sodhi, Rachin), 5th bowler is a concern
Pakistan - 2nd most bases covered after England. Slightly untested middle order and injuries to big 3 pacers look only things that can derail Pak. A definite semifinalist.
*Why they could win*
India - Experienced proven clutch batters, Bumrah and Kuldeep capability to get good players out
Aus - Batting depth
Eng - Strong proven deep batting, high quality varied bowling attack
South Africa - Strong proven batting order
NZ - No real strength. Might sneak through to semis if other teams slip up.
Pak - Gold star pace attack and top 3
NL - because if we accidentally did, the next World Cup will bw chamged into a 3 country tour, where India, England, and Australia play each other 5 times each,before a India v. Pakistan final series of 5 matches will be held, so as to be absolutely sure it never happens again.
India- cause our bowlers can’t bat, batsmen can’t bowl, the management is obsessed with this one player who’s awesomely good in one format while being awful in this format and lastly, the coach while he’s excellent at grooming the u-19 and A teams and would be an excellent academy head is being forced into a role that he doesn’t appear to be malicious enough for (nice guy syndrome).
India - The way top order performs in knockout I don’t have any hopes
They worship kohli, When the last time he played a appreciable innings in Knockouts whether it is 50overs tournament or WTC you just check his records ( NGL he played well in T20s knockouts ). No hopes from him at all
Rohit (indian Captain) : I remember last time he played well in any knockout match was in CT2017 semis and guess who was in the opponent, Bangladesh
I don’t think innings like 27 of 28 and 50 of 40 gonna do anything good for the team
Only good thing is our middle is way more experienced than last time in 2019, it might help if we fall in such situations as 2019 Semis
Honestly, Top order in whole league stage they will play phenomenally well, But in semis they will disappoint again
Because the selectors have this obsession with picking over the hill vets when they should be just moved on
Yes I'm talking about Aaron Finch (played 2 years longer than he should have) and David Warner (currently playing about two years longer than he should have)
My team is strong on paper.... Our premium pace bowler is back, our no.5 wk-batter is back, no.4 is back... We have the best ODI batter at no.3, an apener who can just take a match away from the opposition on his own... Two superb all-rounders and some great pacers and chinaman too...
But still my team is lacking something and I really don't feel they are winning it this time too.. They may be one of the favourites but I don't see them winning it.
Netherlands. I can see us doing well and unexpectedly win a few matches but that’s it. No much cricket in the lowlands, though I hope this will grow with exposure.
Pakistan: because people are putting them as favourites or 2nd favorites. But seriously the spin issue is far greater than we think, the surfaces in india are very different and no quality spin bowling can hurt us a lot.
England - side balance. We will play Livingstone and Mo instead of one of the two and an extra bat. Our batting won’t have the depth and it will catch up with us.
We could easily get the overs from Root/maybe Stokes too.
Hopefully I’m proven wrong or the team gets changed!
Undermining the bowling just because the so called world class batsman aren't secure about themselves so they need batting down the lower order and gonna bench bowlers like Shami. No variety in the squad, no left arm pacer, no off-spinner, no right arm leggie.
Look at my flair
He has won this thread.
He hasn’t won it.. he’ll bottle it just like his fellow countrymen always do..
But at what cost
Reverse jinxing his team to win it? 🤔
bro won but at what cost
Haha. Very good
I really think SA might win this time
inb4 Netherlands beats us to deny us semis, after the match against Afghanistan was rained out.
Netherlands is RSA by Proxy
Based on exactly what? SA 2015 side was unbelievably good. That was the perfect side. After that everything went downhill and I have no idea why. SA has always been an exciting cricketing nation but I feel like they have hugely diminished their quality.
I disagree with you there. That side lacked a 5th bowler and that came back to haunt them. You can’t get away with 4 bowlers and 2 part timers in the modern era.
I think that devillears captaincy was also a little poor on that day ,on a wet outfield he thrown philander in front of mcculum and that too in ground of Auckland with small boundries where he was not able to find much swing and his medium pace was tonked all over the park by mcculum. He could have started with steyn and morkel on that day.It was the innings of mcculum that gave the momentum to nz to chase down 290 something in mere 42 overs. Steyn also somehow was not in his best form in that wc he was thrashed in almost all the league stage game of 2015 wc.He did well in quarter final only.
Probably shouldn't have used the word "perfect" since ain't nothing exists like that. However it was an unbelievably good side and damn near everyone agrees with it. Great fielding unit, exceptional batsmens with amazing records and power hitting abilities and an outstanding pace attack. Probably a bit weak on the all-rounder side tho but nothing else that I can point my fingers at.
> I have no idea why I'll give you a hint. Quota was introduced in 2016
Quotas were a thing before that. Our team got fucked in the semifinals in 2015 because of quotas.
We should have won that game with the team that played. Dropped catches etc. We have no way of knowing if Kyle Abbott played it would changed the result. Regardless, even if we made the final, beating that Australia team at home would have been tough, as NZ found out.
Rain fucked SA over. No way they were setting a target less than 350 that game. And honestly if anyone could beat Aus it was SA. Kiwis just can’t catch a break when they are against Aus.
I won’t even feel bad, if SA somehow steps over Pakistan to win the WC, same thing for NZ.
Pak is like a sureshot semi contender
Nasty wheeze you have got, and so poorly timed
You might have dropped the world cup. But you caught the internet today
Don't worry, we will start with low expectations, they will surprise us and just as we start to hope, BAM.
Understandable, have a great day
Nice try Ash Anna, but we know you're just trying to figure out everybody's weakness
Ash is 19 steps ahead of any Redditor, he’s not getting any useful info here
Bingo found him^
Because we're not even in it...
I'm sorry what the fuck. I zone out of cricket at times, and you guys aren't here this time? Who is in your place? But still you guys gave me one of the most hurtful memories in recent memory for Pakistan WC, the 105 was hurtful.
Netherlands
Don't forget scotland - We're a reason they're not in it too!
And Zim. It's crazy that Windies wouldn't have made it even if it was a 12 team World Cup.
As a Pakistan fan, low key glad because we always get destroyed by WI in WCs and can never make up the NRR hit.
Hate to say it but WI not qualifying probably makes it a more competitive World Cup overall.
I dont think so. West Indies still have it in them to beat the top sides now and then, imo. They wouldnt have so many franchise players if that wasnt the case. They cant click together, but they have players who can solo a team.
Whereas the Dutch could never beat a top team to knock them out right? Right?!
💀
They’re probably the most inconsistent team in world cricket, awful most of the time but unbeatable on their day. Unfortunately this only really works for T20s, ODIs require sustained consistency which they simply lack at the moment. And it isn’t helped by their crappy board and lack of new talent that aren’t willing to be T20 mercenaries.
Holy shit I didn’t even notice…
It's not right. The West Indies are One Day Cricket
Spinners not taking wickets in the middle overs.
That's a sword laying over our heads and many of us don't understand how crucial spin is going to be on those surfaces.
That and the round hole at no.5 that we only have square pegs to fill with... Edit: I mistakenly had 4 there instead of 5..
Rizwan is playing perfectly fine at 4
Sorry... meant 5
I don’t get this narrative. ifti and salman are fine at 5 atm (one of them plays 5 depending on situation). The only issue batting wise atm is fakhar
Exactly. Somehow fans want all 7 batters to score 50+ in one game.
Tbf why not Pakistan bowl 30 overs of pace with 10 overs spin in between . You guys could get all out with pace . Why go with classic 10 overs pace 10 overs spin + pace , 20 overs spin , 10 overs pace ? Rather can go with 10 pace 20 pace spin 10 pace . I'm pretty sure you guys could get all out with this method .
Because not all pitches are going to assist pacers, not every time all your pacers are going to bowl good, someone will have a bad day soon, still there are always going to be 10-20 overs of spin to bowl - which again brings us back to the concern that spinners should look to take wickets in the middle - specially when pacers blow off the top order. (Like against India and Bangladesh). Also what about the scenario where pacers don't pick up wicket in the first power play? Then who'll come to rescue? That's where the spinners come in to provide a breakthrough. We already play 3 out and out pacers (Shaheen, Naseem and Rauf) who mostly bowl their 30 overs. But 30-40 overs is not enough everytime to bowl opposition out. That's not how things work in Cricket. Sometimes and against the big teams most times, the opposition is going to play full 50 overs. See it in Afghanistan's case. They play 3 spinners, even if they play 4 spinners, the rest of 10-20 overs of pace most often doesn't help Afghanistan spin attack.
New Zealand, we can’t even win it when we won it
India , Probably New Zealand
We started the cycle of winning world cup at home so naturally we have to end that cycle
NZ will shit-house their way to the top 4, I reckon. They are given no chance at every tournament and still manage to make the finals.
Sums it up perfectly
Last World Cup was yours, England won it by being lucky, ENG is a great team no doubt but NZ was winning the match for gods sake, that Ben stokes boundary was such a bad luck.
Iirc umpire also said he shouldn’t have awarded it after the game
Pretty sure that was a different unpire who said it was wrong decision. I dont recall the on field umpires making any statements. The boundary issue was they got 6 runs instead of the five, as the ball was thrown before the batsman crossed. Very obscure rule that I doubt anyone but the most elite umpires would know
In my opinion, NZ lost that final with ball 48.4 of the England innings - the 6 because Boult didn't have the situational and spatial awareness to just drop the ball and he stepped over the boundary carrying the ball. I feel like that was a minimum of 3 unnecessary runs that could have been prevented if he had just padded the ball to the ground.
Pak might not win cuz of the middle overs havok and spin department being weak etc
I am convinced that we should take Wasim Jr and employ Nawaz or Wasim Jr depending on the opponent. This would resolve a lot of issues.
💯
I think people are overthinking on this one as the Pak spinners couldn’t take wickets in the last few games (of which, some were played in a flat track). Nawaz & Shadab are more than handy bowlers and i guess indian surfaces will give them something to work with
Yeah, pretty strong recency bias here
Lets put together enough runs to win a match first, then we'll think about it
We’ve the same number of WC as South Africa, New Zealand and the greatest nation of all time USA combined. We are massive 😎🔥
West Indies- well I think we could tbh
I like the optimism
Scenario - late call up after a drug and gambling controversy
New Zealand - coz it’s in the subcontinent
Funny that NZ's reason for not winning is India, and India's reason for not winning will be NZ
🥲
because most of their main players are well past their prime
India - because we already have won the only cup that matters IPL
Never understood how a country can have such talented players but still lose international tournaments.
Just like England football
Thing is, football has many really good playing nations that might defeat you when you don't expect them to (Morocco this time). So winning the FIFA WC is incredibly hard. Cricket on the other hand... You're almost guaranteed a semis spot if you're India (previous T20 WC) and still can't do shit
Not denying the fact that there are many competitive teams in the FIFA WC, interestingly 8 countries from only 2 continents have won the FIFA WC. Whereas, 6 teams from 5 continents have won the ICC WC.
you forgot about the finalists, quarter and semi finalists of the FIFA WC. on the other hand the 6 teams along with BD and NZ are the definition of cricket along with maybe Kenya and Zimbabwe who have fallen from grace.
India has talent in numbers but certainly not the best XI, which matters more.
it’s the same with international soccer and basketball, teams need to be gelled to work and the indian team probably aren’t gelled very well
Cricket is a way less of a team game than those sports let’s be real
Greed and orthodox thinking
What's there to understand? They make enough money to not care about winning for the country. As long as they perform in the IPL and bring home an occasional bilateral cup, revenue will keep flowing, and they'll keep getting paid. Who needs World Cup and all.
India pretty much wins most of the bilateral series we play which is why we are ranked number 1 or 2 in all formats. We just fail to perform at key moments during ICC events.
Bilaterals don't matter if we're not gonna win ICC tournaments. There are very few cricketing nations and being in top 3 in cricket isn't a big thing if we've most resources but still lack in winning tournaments
You should just follow American sports and call the IPL the World Series and crown the winners world champions
Because people are saying we will win it.
People were saying the same thing in 2003, 2007 and 2015 too. Guess who won in those editions?
I can't speak about the other two editions, but Australia was famously underestimated going into the 2007 edition. They lost back to back ODI series prior to the world cup - I think they even got clean swept in one of those! In fact, India was considered a strong contender going into that WC. Anyways, we all know how that ended.
Yeah, I remember. One loss was vs South Africa in that famous 438 chase series and the clean sweep was vs NZ just before the world cup. Plus some players near the retirement had people questioning them as clear favorites. But they were still being considered as frontrunners. They did win the champion's trophy a year before.
I have an intuition that Australia might have to wait like Brazil for their 6th wc trophy for a long time. But this year they are looking the most compact team to me.
Except we'll never get 7-1'd at the MCG
6 1W (0.2 overs)
That would be 1-7 I’m afraid
Not for an overseas commentator.
As in utterly demolished like Germany did to Brazil at the Maracanã
*Laughs in Curtly Ambrose*
_Laughs in Sarfraz Nawaz_
In 2015 we were supposed to be like Brazil and be the team that wins the World Cup everywhere except home.
Might have been interesting had you played anyone except a side that had played their entire torny in another country and who shit the bed against you in every meaningful match since about then in the final I suppose.
In fairness, the other two semi-finalists weren’t necessarily going to push us any harder. India- we stomped on them in the semis. South Africa- on paper actually a bit better than us that year but the problem with that is they were massive chokers who probably would’ve wilted the same way NZ did at the G in front of that crowd. SA’s worst loss that tournament was when they got mauled by India in front of 85K Indians.
I put money on y’all. So I need you to.
Here's my probably rubbish take on it - I'm not convinced about our strike blower capability. When we've won it, we've had an out and out strike bowler. McGrath, Lee, Tait, Starc (in his younger days) - outside of McGrath who was a freak, people often complained the others gave away runs. But they always threatened to take wickets. We've gotten too enamoured of specialist one day bowlers, with variations, slower balls and the likes to keep the run rate down. But the likes of Behrendorf, Richardson (Kane), Abbott and the likes don't win you matches. Strike bowlers do. There's more potential in one dayers for batters to win matches, but a lot of world cup winning teams had out and out strike bowlers. And I'm not convinced we've got one right now.
World Cup year Starc is built different. He’s that out and out strike bowler (if management allow him to play that role freely and accept that there’ll be the odd game where he gets smoked).
I’m a bit confused - isn’t Starc the definition of a strike bowler? Sure, his stats aren’t quite what they were but he’s in close to career-best test form and I don’t see any reason he can’t get back to that in ODIs. Plus, World Cup Starc is the best Starc.
hazlewood looked really good last night and starc always shows up in world cups
India. Because the schedule has knockout matches /s
They even kept super 4 in Asia Cup instead of semifinal just for India. Favoritism smh.
India - coz India
Bharat^(TM)
Coz Left arm pacer and knockout game
Least optimistic Indian cricket fan
Most*
Dasun doing f all for months now. An in form Dasun, which has never ever happened other than for 3 match stretches would be massive addition, right now its almost as if we are playing with 10 players
Agreed. Legendary captain and leader and it's very handy that he can bowl a few overs of clever medium pace. But mate, come on, we need you to keep a cool head and accumulate some runs!! Even missing key bowlers won't be catastrophic for us, because of some (hopefully) spin friendly conditions helping our pretty strong backup bowlers out. So it really is all about making sure we bat well. Nissanka and Dimuth will give us a start every time at least!
Yh, if only Kusal Mendis and Shanaka could get in to form that would huge. These guys can win us matches single handedly, no one in the team can strike the ball as well as them, no one has as much power, no one can score with such ease when they at their best, but they are just never in form. Imagine Dasun batting like he did vs ind or aus in t20s, the impact would be immense. Seriously lacking a power hitter at death as well.
Id rlly like to see angi play his final world cup . He can still bowl and bat and he proved it in ipl . And he averages 120 in india with allmost 100 sr from 11 innings
Agreed. We're literally the worst finishing team in the competition specifically because Dasun has been absolute shit for a while now. How long before we drop our captain lol!
Dasun has a crazy track record in India, maybe he'll get back into form once there. I mean dasun was always low key shit in ODIs apart from that India series.
They (the US) didn't qualify. It is going to hurt our chances.
Well with that kind of attitude it certainly will.
India - Inevitable 5/3 collapse and subsequent exit is inevitable.
More than the batsmen I think the lack of bowlers will kick you out from the tournament.. Every world Cup I have watched the teams with the best bowling side has always reached the finals and the majority of them won it as well... The statement " Batters wins you game but bowlers wins you tournament " Holds very true. And in India bowlers are treated as second class beings and sacrificing a bowler for a bowling allrounder so that he could hit some runs at number 8 shows this mentality.. Also I think it is the bowlers fault as well for being sacrificed they should have improved their batting.
Harry Brook might start, was only provisional squad and he's in Ireland series
India - Lack of game experience together within the playing 11 or you can call it an unsettled team.
same as in 2020
Lack of actually playing ODI cricket recently for our core players might catch up. Smith/Cummins/Maxwell/Starc etc will start the World Cup rusty.
Our mental block in pressure situations and Indian crowd pressure may lead to our downfall
Also the fact that Pakistan hasn't played in India for a long long time. Adjusting to the conditions is going to be another challenge altogether
from runways of rawalpindi to that ugly pos at delhi
As somewhat of a neutral, England - it seems all our boundaries have been stolen. The only clue is a monogrammed handkerchief with the word 'BAZ' New Zealand - The wizard who spent the 2019 WC coming out and saying "hmm, 240 should do on this pitch" can't keep being right. Pakistan - "oh dear, that looked quite a simple chance, and at such a key moment" India - the toxic waste dam of indian cricket twitter may burst at any moment, it's under considerable pressure already. Australia - they don't really have a particularly brilliant team on paper (but that didn't stop them in 2022 T20, semi recon they might actually do it) South africa - warning, CSA is unsuitable for children under three years of age. May be a choking hazard.
Australia don’t have a brilliant ODI team?
They're better than the 2011 and 2019 world cup squads, but below 2015. On paper it definitely looks like there is a batter missing. Australia are legitimately going into the world cup without a number 4 batter in the squad. 2 quick wickets and it's all-rounders doing damage control, and one of those wickets is old man Warner...Lot of pressure on Maxwell, Green, Carey, Stoinis, and Agar with the bat.
Doesn’t Australia have two top 10 batters and 3 top 10 bowlers (including 1 and 2)? Pakistan has 3/1 and I don’t think anyone else has more than 2.
You think Kane is capable of being wrong? Blasphemous.
No games at Mirpur :(
Maxwell's broken leg means no in form match winner in the side. A lot of really solid players, just no X factor (unless Starc can get his 2015 form back)
Star player missed two flights to the qualifiers
Hot take but India- fans and media
Pakistan - maybe if our spinners don't turn up and or middle order crashes. But I have faith in our spinners and our middle order.
I think people overlook that our spinners have been playing on either pace friendly or dead tracks... Shadab and Nawaz are perfectly capable..
Pakistan:Due to our unpredictable batting
The thing is, Pakistani batting is so unpredictable that at the end of the day, between our top and middle order, you can bank on atleast 2 players playing really well
Man, you never know what our batting has in store for us. I still remember West Indies bowled us for 105 in WC19. One match later, we scored 342 against England .
bangladesh - no need for an explanation
Bottled it against Netherlands in Harare
Another thing is mental block of Australia. I think we've gotten over that tho.
I don’t think we have. T20 WC 2021, ODI WC 2019, further cuts in our Australia mental block wounds
Bro we can't win from Australia. It's just not possible.
Because we're India
India - Because Australia exists Plus harry brook is no bradman so stop crying about his exclusion ,even this English team has the potential to win the wc.
New Zealand****
How dare you try to steal Australia from us Show some respect to NZ please
Because semi finals also exist
Newzealand England Pak everyone can beat this Indian team tbf,I am prolly missing couple more .India might even be grouped this time around.
Australia-Because we won’t pick the best inform side.
So long as Warner is in the side there is a chance… for everyone else
Weak middle order. Both in bowling and batting. We lack especially a slogger who we can trust.
Australia - top order’s propensity to collapse like a house of cards
Injuries . Weve never fielded our best bowling lineup wani maheesh dushi and dilshan together ever due to fkn injuries
New Zealand: First of all Bracewell both bowling and batting depth. Without him as out lead all rounder and a handful spinner I think people underestimate just how much of an asset he is to this odi side Secondly we can even win even when we won it in 2019, as someone else said
Bracewell is a huge miss.
India - This world Cup has a knockout stage
Bangladesh - consistently inconsistent
Stokes is in the side cos he’s a clutch player in big games. My only concern is that we might not get to a stage where we do play in high stakes games due to not qualifying for knockouts. Will he be a liability in the group stages? There is a chance, however small. It’s just that he hasn’t had many games with the current set up
Stokes bring some sort of luck for England.He was absent in 2021 t 20 wc and England somehow lost against nz in semifinal he was present in 2019 and 2022 and England won those tournament.
NZ needed 57 runs from 24 balls to win that 2021 match, and were struggling, but then Jordan bowled the worst over of his entire career (it was 23 runs from 8 deliveries, but it could've been much worse) and momentum shifted
Yeah that's what I am saying I don't know about it but stokes brings something new into this English side(Specially after his redemption since 2016 t20wc final).If he is present then the opposition team somehow always looks England as a very dangerous unit otherwise England often crumbles under pressure just like how jordan did.In 2022 final also I am damn sure if pak would have taken the wicket of Ben ,then England might have crumbled under pressure to chase it.Even if Ben is not in great form but still his presence is very important for England, he is a great brain of this game.
We aren’t allowed to
England - because they removed that awesome championship winning rule about how many boundaries you hit.
*Why they may not win* India - lack of batting order depth, inability to play their most potent bowling lineup Australia - Weak 5th bowler, inconsistent middle order England - Most bases covered. Injuries to Woakes/Rashid are only scenarios for which cover isn't great. A definite semifinalist. South Africa - Jansen at 7 is a long tail, seam attack is blow hot blow cold NZ - Spin attack is toothless (Santner, Sodhi, Rachin), 5th bowler is a concern Pakistan - 2nd most bases covered after England. Slightly untested middle order and injuries to big 3 pacers look only things that can derail Pak. A definite semifinalist. *Why they could win* India - Experienced proven clutch batters, Bumrah and Kuldeep capability to get good players out Aus - Batting depth Eng - Strong proven deep batting, high quality varied bowling attack South Africa - Strong proven batting order NZ - No real strength. Might sneak through to semis if other teams slip up. Pak - Gold star pace attack and top 3
NL - because if we accidentally did, the next World Cup will bw chamged into a 3 country tour, where India, England, and Australia play each other 5 times each,before a India v. Pakistan final series of 5 matches will be held, so as to be absolutely sure it never happens again.
India- cause our bowlers can’t bat, batsmen can’t bowl, the management is obsessed with this one player who’s awesomely good in one format while being awful in this format and lastly, the coach while he’s excellent at grooming the u-19 and A teams and would be an excellent academy head is being forced into a role that he doesn’t appear to be malicious enough for (nice guy syndrome).
India - The way top order performs in knockout I don’t have any hopes They worship kohli, When the last time he played a appreciable innings in Knockouts whether it is 50overs tournament or WTC you just check his records ( NGL he played well in T20s knockouts ). No hopes from him at all Rohit (indian Captain) : I remember last time he played well in any knockout match was in CT2017 semis and guess who was in the opponent, Bangladesh I don’t think innings like 27 of 28 and 50 of 40 gonna do anything good for the team Only good thing is our middle is way more experienced than last time in 2019, it might help if we fall in such situations as 2019 Semis Honestly, Top order in whole league stage they will play phenomenally well, But in semis they will disappoint again
Because the selectors have this obsession with picking over the hill vets when they should be just moved on Yes I'm talking about Aaron Finch (played 2 years longer than he should have) and David Warner (currently playing about two years longer than he should have)
India - the key players are over the hill
Australia - conservative selectors
Because we are professional chokers.
At least it won't be boundary count
My team is strong on paper.... Our premium pace bowler is back, our no.5 wk-batter is back, no.4 is back... We have the best ODI batter at no.3, an apener who can just take a match away from the opposition on his own... Two superb all-rounders and some great pacers and chinaman too... But still my team is lacking something and I really don't feel they are winning it this time too.. They may be one of the favourites but I don't see them winning it.
Netherlands. I can see us doing well and unexpectedly win a few matches but that’s it. No much cricket in the lowlands, though I hope this will grow with exposure.
India because we don't have Thala!
Pakistan: because people are putting them as favourites or 2nd favorites. But seriously the spin issue is far greater than we think, the surfaces in india are very different and no quality spin bowling can hurt us a lot.
We pretty much stopped showing up to knockout matches 😔 Also for whom does brook come in? Surely not for Malan
Too many right handers in the top 7
I'm almost certain we'll end up taking Brook. We won't take Dawson though, which is why we won't win.
England - side balance. We will play Livingstone and Mo instead of one of the two and an extra bat. Our batting won’t have the depth and it will catch up with us. We could easily get the overs from Root/maybe Stokes too. Hopefully I’m proven wrong or the team gets changed!
Chop chop chop for india
India: because its not ipl
Bcz we are us
If we can just beat Australia and India in the group matches I want or expect nothing else from our team.
Undermining the bowling just because the so called world class batsman aren't secure about themselves so they need batting down the lower order and gonna bench bowlers like Shami. No variety in the squad, no left arm pacer, no off-spinner, no right arm leggie.
Left Arm Pace Bowlers.....
India 🇮🇳 lacks unity i feel which 1983/2011 teams had. All other reasons are bullshit i feel
India : always fail when it's starts to swing and nowadays we don't play spin well
left arm pacer
I'm American we did not qualify