ICC World Cup 2019: Sir Viv Richards names the favourites of the tournament

Two-time World Cup winner and Windies great Sir Viv Richards is greatly regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. When he says something, more or less it comes out to be true and this time, he has mentioned that if Pakistan’s batting clicks, they can easily lift the ICC World Cup 2019 that will be played in England and Wales.

The 2019 World Cup will see the playing format revert back to the 1992 edition where every team played other once in a round robin format and the top four teams made it into the semi-finals of the tournament. This time 10 teams will take part in the World Cup with Afghanistan making their second appearance in the ICC’s mega-event and Australia being the defending champions.

“They have the talent. I find that the bowling unit of Pakistan is very good. If the batsmen can perform to the best of their abilities then I believe Pakistan has the chance,” Richards said in an interview with The News.

Richards mentioned Pakistan’s ICC Champion Trophy win in 2017 and said that before they won the ICC trophy in 2017, the Pakistani team was inconsistent as well, but came together as a unit to lift the trophy, defeating rivals India in the finals. He said if the team manages to do so again in the World Cup, they can win the title as well.

Richards talks about the other contenders

Richards also talked about other teams that are in the race of winning the World Cup. First and foremost, he picked Team India given their success rate since the Champions Trophy 2017. Next team he picked was the Windies since they have started to show promise in the 50-overs format. The Caribbean team gave England a run for their money in the recently concluded ODI series, which was drawn 2-2.

New Zealand will be the dark horses to win the tournament according to Richards. “Australia are a unit and must be respected. New Zealand could be a dark horse. There are a lot of teams, about four or five who have the capability to win,” said Richards.

Richards also said that with Rashid Khan in their ranks, the Afghanistan team is also capable of giving the other big teams in the ICC World Cup 2019, a tough competition.

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