Shane Warne names his favourites to lift the World Cup 2019; confident about Australia too

With just about three months to go for the 2019 ICC World Cup to be played in England and Wales; speculations are rife about the winner of the mega event. The World Cup will see Australia defend their title, which they won by defeating New Zealand in the finals of the 2015 edition in their own home.

Australia has won the tournament five times with victories in 1987, 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2015. The hero of their 1999 World Cup win was legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne who had picked four wickets each in the semi-finals and finals of the tournament and now he has put forth his views on who will become World Champions and what are the chances of his own team to defend their crown.

Shane Warne felt Australia are capable of winning the title in England and Wales despite their performances in ODIs in the recent past. He said that the Men in Yellow have match winners and players who are capable of performing in the conditions where the World Cup will be hosted.

However, he put the onus of selecting the winning combination on the Australian selectors and said, “if the selectors play their part – then the Aussies can 100% win!”

As for Australia’s performances in the recent past, they have lost the ODI series to South Africa, England and India, with the Brits whitewashing them, while the Men in Blue winning their first ever bilateral ODI series down under. England have perfected a formula of winning ODI matches and so far they have been highly successful in their quest, and they also hold the record of the highest team total in ODIs- 481/6.

Who are the favourites according to Warne?

As for the favourites to win the ICC event, Shane Warne chose hosts England, for obvious reasons and Team India, for their amazing form in the last year or so. India have been on a hot run ever since their 2017 ICC Champions Trophy finals’ loss at the hands of Pakistan.

As I’m putting my #worldcup squad together for my column, I really believe Aust can win it again. As we have the players for the conditions, match winners etc. I think England & India go in as hot favourites, but if the selectors play their part – then the Aussies can 100% win !

— Shane Warne (@ShaneWarne) February 5, 2019

The Men in Blue have played 10 ODI series since that dreaded loss and have won nine of them against the likes of South Africa, Australia, West Indies and losing one, against England. The Indian team has done extremely well under the Virat Kohli‘s leadership, who led them to their maiden ODI wins in Australia and New Zealand.

The Indian team also won the 2018 Asia Cup beating the likes of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma.

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