The ICC World Cup 2019 is just a week away and before the real thing begins, all the ten participating teams will engage in warmup matches starting from May 24. Defending Champions Australia will be looking for their sixth title, while hosts England will be looking for their first title, that too at in their home.
Meanwhile, India, who are widely considered to be the favorites to winning the title will start their campaign against South Africa on June 5, while facing New Zealand in a warmup match on May 25.
However, one team that everyone has given a miss is the West Indies, who recently took England to their limits at home, drawing the 5-match ODI series 2-2 with some scintillating performances from experienced Chris Gayle and youngsters like Sheldon Cottrell and Shai Hope.
Captain Jason Holder was present at the captains' media day and said, "We're all excited for this tournament and we want it to start tomorrow. I'm pretty happy with my squad as a whole, so hopefully, we can play well and enjoy ourselves.”
"You only had five or six games previously, with a few more if you made the knockout stages. So it's exciting to play every other team this time. You'll have to work hard to win the World Cup by playing every other team - it's the top ten in the world but you want to play all the other nine to give yourself a chance," he was quoted as saying by ANI.
"We're taking it one game at a time - it's a pretty level playing field and cricket is a game played on the day. Everyone is up to the task and knows what standard the competition is, so it comes down to who plays better on the day," Holder added.
Meanwhile defending champions Australia’s skipper Aaron Finch feels that the team is ready for some hostility towards Steve Smith and David Warner from English fans.
“Since Warner and Smith have come back into the set-up they have been fantastic and contributed so much. The morale has been unbelievable. Once it gets underway, particularly against England, and further on for the Ashes, the crowd will play a part but that is expected everywhere in the world. We have plans in place for that, and their (Warner and Smith's) squad input and output in terms of the runs they have been making has been fantastic,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Next.
Australia starts the tournament as defending champions but according to Finch, India and England were the two sides are favorites to take the title home. “England have been in great form and along with India are probably the stand out performers. So England in home conditions are definitely the favorites," Finch said.
As for his own team, Finch mentioned that the ODI series win over India was a huge morale booster for the whole unit, given that they came back from being 2-0 down to win the series 3-2. Then they went to UAE and whitewashed Pakistan 5-0.
Finch said, “The belief we got from that series was huge, you hang in there and you can turn anything around. As a team we are really excited, we have been together since May 2 and tried not to put all our energy into the preparation. You cannot win it before it has started. So we are trying to make sure we are fresh, but we are excited. There will definitely be nerves about but that is natural. We cannot wait and I wish it started tomorrow.”
(With ANI/ CricketNext inputs)
