ICC T20 World Cup 2022: England Skipper Jos Buttler Names Defending Champion Australia As Favourites
Published - 15 Oct 2022, 03:28 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:14 AM
England captain Jos Buttler, whose team are riding high after a confidence-boosting build-up, insisted defending champions Australia were still the team to beat and will be the favourites to win the T20 World Cup starting Sunday. Australia had beaten New Zealand in the final last year in Dubai to win their maiden T20 World Cup.
This time around, Australia will be hosting their first-ever T20 World Cup and Buttler believes that will be their biggest advantage as no other team will know conditions better than the Aaron Finch-led side.
England skipper Jos Buttler believes Australia have an advantage of knowing the playing conditions best
Jos Buttler said in the all-captains’ press conference in Melbourne on the eve of the World Cup, “T20 is one of those games that can be unpredictable, but I think history tells you that, generally, the host nation are slight favourites in big tournaments,”
“Many of us have travelled and played in Australia and know the conditions, but of course no-one is going to know the conditions or be as accustomed to them as the Australian team. They are also reigning champions, so you have to pick them out probably as favourites for the tournaments,” he added.
Aaron Finch reckons Australia needs ‘sharpening up’
Australia still has an unofficial warm-up game scheduled against India before they enter the World Cup at the Super 12 stage on October 22 in a rematch of last year’s final with New Zealand.
“With the bat, we were always just one wicket down further than we needed to be over the whole series.
“In big run chases, you need that one in batter towards the back of the innings and we probably were just falling a little bit short each time with that. All in all, we’re not bad, just a little sharpen up would be nice.”
