No Place For Pakistan As Harbhajan Singh Picks His Four Favourites For ICC World Cup Semifinals
Published - 20 Sep 2023, 03:33 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:19 AM
Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh has picked four favourites for the upcoming ICC World Cup 2023. The highly-anticipated World Cup is just over a couple of weeks away.
The thirteenth edition of the competition is scheduled to be played in India from October 5 to November 19. The tournament will be played across 10 venues – Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Dharamsala, Delhi, Lucknow and Pune. A total of 48 matches will be played across 45 days.
Ten teams will be fighting it out for the ODI supremacy in the next two months. The upcoming World Cup promises to be one of the most thrilling editions to date. And as the World Cup inches closer with each passing day, fans and experts have started predicting the winners and favourites for the marquee event.
Harbhajan Singh’s World Cup favourites:
Ahead of the World Cup, Harbhajan Singh has picked India, Australia, England and New Zealand as his favourites to qualify for the semifinals. The former spinner snubbed world number ODI team Pakistan and explained the reason behind it.
Speaking on his YouTube channel after India’s squad for the three-match ODI series against Australia was announced, Harbhajan Singh said:
“Muqabale tagde honge (India vs. Australia series) umeed karte hai.Dekhiye in muqabalo mein jo jeetega vo apna ek daava sa set kar dega ki World Cup ke davedaar ho sakte hai. Kyuki Australia bhi ek davedaar hai World Cup ke semifinal tak aane ke liye, Bharat ki team hai ek davedaar, ek England ki team hai.
(Roughly translated to: “The India-Australia series will be very competitive. The winner of the series will set their credentials for the World Cup. Australia are one of the contenders for the semifinals, so are India and England.)
“Aur chauthi team jo mujhe lagta hai ki. Dekhiye log Pakistan ko bahut aank rahe hai ki Pakistan aage jayegi, lekin shayad iss format mein 50-over mein, abhi humne jo dekha hai, theek-thaak he lage. Mujhe toh koi aisa laga nahi ki bahut koi tagdi team hai. T20I format theek-thaak khelte hai, acha khelte hai, par agar meri koi chauthi favourite team hogi to vo hogi New Zealand. World Cup ke chaar semifinalist’s jo main chunta hoon vo ye honge,” he added.
(Roughly translated to: People are expecting Pakistan to go deep but they are not a very strong side in the ODIs. They play well in T20Is but my fourth favourites will be New Zealand).
England are the reigning champion while Australia are the most successful side in the history of the competition. India are also widely considered as one of the favourites and the home conditions will also favour them. New Zealand are not considered by many as favourites but the Black Caps have a penchant for doing well in the World Cups.
In the last two editions of the ODI World Cup, New Zealand made it to the final. Incidentally, India, New Zealand, England and Australia were the semifinalists in the last World Cup too while in 2015, India, Australia and New Zealand made it to the last four.
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