Jonty Rhodes: Cricket World Cup is open

South African cricket legend Jonty Rhodes believes that the upcoming World Cup is wide open. England and India go into the tournament as the favourites after having the most consistent of records during recent years. England will have home advantage, whereas India have arguably the best batsman in World cricket in Virat Kohli and are proven winners in England after having won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy there.

Other contenders for Cricket World Cup

One can however not rule out Australia who are boosted by the return of David Warner and Steve Smith. Smith and Warner will play in the tournament after having served out their one year bans for their part in the infamous ball tampering scandal following a series against South Africa in early 2018.

Other teams who also can potentially win the Cup include New Zealand and Pakistan, whilst South Africa will find themselves well within contention. Rhodes knows all about the World Cup. As a player, he appeared in the tournament four times with South Africa, and also produced one of the most iconic moments in Cricket World Cup history when he dived into the stumps to run-out Pakistan’s Inzaman Ul-Haq during the 1992 edition of the tournament.

Speaking to media ahead of the Mumbai T20 League, Rhodes said as per the Cricket South Africa website: “India might have the ‘Fab 15’ but there are probably six other teams that might call themselves the same. There are some very strong teams in the World Cup and it will depend on the balanced 11 that they chose on the day, depending on the conditions,”

This year’s cricket World Cup will be different in that there will only be ten team’s at the tournament. All sides will play each other once in group stage games and the top four on the standings at the end will advance to the semi-finals. This World Cup will arguably test consistency more than any of the others have done.

Featured Image Credit: “Pallekele International Cricket Stadium” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by killswitch125