Steve Waugh Picks His Favourite World Cup Contender

Published - 11 Jul 2018, 08:03 PM | Updated - 22 Aug 2024, 11:53 PM

Steve Waugh.
Steve Waugh. Credits: Getty Images.

Former Australian skipper Steve Waugh has picked his favourite 2019 World Cup contender which is scheduled in England and Wales. Waugh, who was known for his shrewdness believes that England has a very good chance in the upcoming One-day International carnival.

Meanwhile, Waugh believes that other teams will be monitoring England’s progress and would like to crack down the code to stop them.

However, England is playing some outstanding 50-over game as they have ticked the right boxes in a recent couple of years.

Thus, it would be a perfect opportunity for England team to put their hands on the coveted World Cup trophy which has eluded them since the inception of the mega tournament.

Steven Waugh
Photo Credit: Getty Images.

England is playing some breathtaking cricket.

“I think that’s great if you’ve got confidence and belief, and that’s what they’ve got right now,” Waugh told cricket.com.au.

“The only thing, I guess, against England right now is that opposition will be studying the way they’re playing. They’ll be analysing every moment so they’ll have much better game plans against England going forward. That will be their challenge, how to stay that one step in front”.

Furthermore, Waugh added that if he is asked to captain one side at this moment, he will choose the English side.

Well, England has shown an upward swing in their improvement graph and they will also have home advantage in their’s favour.

“But if I was in their shoes if you asked me which (team) I’d like to be captaining right now, I’d like to be captaining the England one-day side. Because they’re playing a great brand of cricket, they’re a very together side, I can’t see the make-up of the team changing much and they’re playing at home. Everything’s in their favour.

Steven Waugh,
Steve Waugh. Photo Credit: CA.

On the other hand, Australia has their backs against the wall. They have lost the services of David Warner and Steven Smith.

Apart from that, their pace bowling triplet is making a comeback from the injury respectively.

“Even if it’s not your best side, there are still seven or eight players there who are going to be in your best team and they’ve lost a lot of cricket,” Waugh said. That’s going to take a while to turn around. So going into next year’s World Cup, our preparation is going to be disjointed. We are definitely not going to be one of the favorites going there.

Thus, Steve Waugh, who led Australia to glory in the 1999 World Cup believes that the Aussies will have their work cut out owing

Meanwhile, England is definitely one of the favourites to lift the World Cup title for the first time.

However, they need to continue their dream form going in the coveted tournament. Interestingly, England ended up as runners-up on three occasions. Unfortunately, they have failed to take the last step.

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