ICC World Cup 2019: I Think Australia Will Win the Tournament - Shane Warne

Former legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne believes the defending champions Australia will be successful in their World Cup defence. Warne has stated that Australia will go on to win the World Cup. In fact, Australia can never be ruled out of the World Cup race as they have the experience of winning the big matches.

Meanwhile, Australia has peaked at the right time. They were able to surprise India and won the series by 3-2 despite trailing by 2-0. Furthermore, they achieved success in Indian conditions. Moreover, they continued their good form and clean swept Pakistan by 5-0 in UAE. Thus, Australia will like to keep up the good form going in the World Cup.

Shane Warne backs Australia to go all the way.

On the other hand, Steven Smith and David Warner have returned back to the Australian team. In fact, both the talisman batsman have made a roaring comeback into the International level. Smith had scored a fine knock of 116 runs in the warm-up match against arch-rivals England. Hence, David Warner and Steven Smith are going to add more stability to Australia’s batting order.

The defending champions also have a good bowling unit. Mitchell Starc is back from injury and he was the Player of the tournament in the 2015 World Cup as he had scalped 22 wickets. Pat Cummins has bowled with fire and Adam Zampa and Nathan Lyon will provide the variety in the spin department.

Furthermore, Australian skipper Aaron Finch is also in good form and he was amongst the runs in the recently concluded bilateral series against Pakistan. Consequently, Australia checks all the boxes in their squad.

“I think everybody wrote Australia off because they were pretty ordinary and played some poor cricket over the last 12 months, but over the last couple of months, the ODI team has found its belief. They have started to think like all the Aussie sides of yesteryears and they think they can win it from anywhere. And you can’t manufacture that. You have to do it a few times,” Shane Warne.

“I think going into the World Cup, India and England have to be the favourites because they have played the best cricket in recent times. But if you look back at the history of how Australia performed at World Cups, they won the last World Cup and have won 4 of the last 6 tournaments so they enjoy the big tournament and I believe they can win the World Cup and I think they will win the World Cup.

Meanwhile, Shane Warne believes England and India will be the favourites to win the World Cup. Both of these two teams have played consistent cricket in the last four years. Ergo, Shane Warne stated that Australia will need to find a way to get past these two teams.

Smith and Warner have made a roaring comeback.

“However, they have to get past a very strong India and England side. If you ask me who are the favourites, it is India and England, but I just think Australia have come back together at the right time and you put Warner and Smith in that mix, it is suddenly looking a very good side.

“He (Smith) is a huge player. If you look back at the time in March last year and you say who were the top five players in the world, you would say (Virat) Kohli, AB de Villiers, Steve Smith, David Warner and Kane Williamson. So Australia had two of the top five players and to lose them was a big loss,” he pointed.

Australia had won the first warm-up against England by 12 runs. The reigning champions will begin their World Cup campaign against Afghanistan at County Ground, Bristol on 1st June.