World Cup 2015: Contenders

I put my views on four contenders in my previous post which you can read here. In this post I am going to discuss the remaining four contenders for the world cup. After being an Indian, I am an Asian so here I am going to disscuss asian teams first.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has been a finalist in last two world cups. This time also they have a chance if they adapt to conditions well. Sri Lanka's batting wholly depend on Jayawardene and Sangakarra. Both of these players are retiring after this world cup and are back bone of srilankan batting. It is like Sri Lanka will only win each and every game if one of these two click otherwise it is quite difficult. As Sangakarra and Jayawardene are back bone of Sri Lanka's batting, Malinga and Kulasekra is backbone of Sri Lanka's bowling.

If Sri Lanka win this world cup then these four players will play bigger role in it. Apart from these four Sri Lanka has the X-Factor in form of Perera and Captain Mathews. These two all-rounders can turn the game on their own. Both Perera and Mathews are very crucial for Sri Lanka's good run in the world cup. Sri Lanka also have the experience of Herath in their spin department. The only thing in which will hinder them is conditions and recently they have lost ODI series in New Zealand. Most of the players are inexperienced but they have the best side among asians. Let's see how far they go.

Pakistan

Bowling has been Pakistan's stength in every world cup. This time also they highly rely on Sohails, Irfan, Wahab Riaz and Afridi. It will be interesting to see if Ajmal get the clearance to play. This time Pakistan's bowling is relatively weak due to the absence of Ajmal and Junaid Khan. So there are lot of inexperienced bowlers in their squad. Now as far as their batting is concerned Wasim Akram has already said that this is their best lot of batsmen available to us.

No potential is seen in their next lot of batsmen or the youngsters coming up and most of their best batsmen are playing their last world cup. So a lot depend on Misbah, Shehzad & Umar Akmal. One thing Pakistan has done well is that they have brought Younis khan back in the ODI side. I think his experience will lift the whole side up. Moreover Afridi is also playing his last world cup so he is going to try his best to make his mark in this world cup. In short Pakistan will be the most unpredictable side in this world cup.

England

Making Morgan a captain was one of the best decisions of ECB. Morgan knows how to lead the team from the front. He has done that in past and will do in this world cup. Apart from that Moeen Ali has been real find for them an opener who can bowl 10 overs of spin what else a team needs. Bell has been very inconsistent, Bopara and Root are out of form and James Taylor is pretty inexperienced which means English batting is in all sorts of trouble. Even I wonder why ECB has not picked Ben Stokes. England would have won the world cup by now if ECB has learnt to value its players.

On the other hand England's bowling is one of the best in this world cup. Big lads like Broad and Finn will just like to take advantage of their height. Anderson's swing will just add to the trouble of opposite side. Moreover they don't even need specialist spinner in the team because they have Ali. Moeen Ali. Who has a habit of taking wickets with his golden arm. Only batting is a worry for England if that clicks then it is surely going to be one of the semi-finalists.

West Indies

If this was t20 world cup then I would have said that West Indies was outright favourite to win it. As no team would like to bowl against batting line-up consisted of Gayle, D. Smith, Smauels, Bravo, Pollard, Russell and Sammy. This batting line-up recently chased the target of 231 in a t20 game in South Africa but this is ODI cricket and West Indies is totally different side in it. Here first of all West Indies will miss Bravo and Pollard due to issues with their cricket board and Narine due to injury.

There is no lack of experience in the side as West Indies players play around the world for the whole year. Only thing is that they have lost the ability to hold themselves for 50 overs. Moreover Holder do not even know how to express himself on the field at the moment. How will he lead a team from the front? Having said that this side comprises Gayle, D. Smith, Simmons and Samuels as batsmen and Taylor, Roach, Benn and Holder as bowlers which makes it a potential side. This side is way beyond unpredictability. Though they can surprise few sides with their performances but I think world cup is way beyond their reach.

I declared three semi-finalists in my last post. I think the fourth one is going to be an Asian team Sri-Lanka (most probably), Pakistan or India (not bangladesh). I think the winner of this world cup will be either Australia or South Africa (I am rooting for them this time.).