Cricket World Cup 2015 - Preview 1

Its the time for Cricket world cup 2015 . And everywhere people talks about it. is it? thats what all the media says. I seriously doubt it, last week I was in Chandigarh , talked to many people most of them showed no excitement at all. Even a youngster who is working in Australia did not showed any interest. I asked him ," Why are not excited about the world cup?" his answer was " India will not win this time. I can not imagine India reaching semi-finals".

Whenever there is an ICC event my friends and relatives ask me this question " which team you will support other than West Indies?" . That question is very important for me because it prevents lots of unnecessary arguments. All my friends and families knew that I'm a big  Windies fan.  So I start with West Indies.

Any chance for West Indies?

Like me there are hundreds and thousands of Windies supporters who never loose hope on the team. Whether they have good players are not , we will support them. The current team is definitely not the best in recent years but they have some very talented players. The batting depends on Bravo, Samuels and Sammy , and to certain extends Chris Gayle.  On the paper these four looks great but very rarely click together. Lets hope they will come good at this world cup. Roach and Taylor needs to deliver in bowling department. When Windies play well they light up everyone, lets hope for the best.I will be very happy if Windies reach semi final. As Im writing this ,Windies is playing against England in a warm up match and they were bowled out for 122. So for others, support Windies at your own risk. But I still support them.

Team Fabulous :

My choice of 'worthy' winners will be South Africa. I think they have the best players in all departments.In batting they have two outstanding batsmen of recent years , Amla and AB de Villiers. Both can play all the shots in the book at a brisk rate. In Steyn,Morkel  and Philander ,SA have probably the best bowling line up one can hope for. No need to say anything about their fielding, they are probably the best. Luck is the only thing missing . I hope that will change in this world cup. The current SA team have the players with strong will power in all departments.

Team India:

I do not have much expectation on this team lead by MS Dhoni. India do not have the players who are experienced in these conditions. And some of these grounds have longer boundaries.  The bowling needs to improve a lot. So far there is not even a single bowler whom we can pick out as the best. All are below average. Fielding is not consistent. Only department I hope that India will shine is batting. India is blessed with some wonderful ODI players MS Dhoni, Kohli, Rahane and Raina these are players who can change the game on their own. Very tough to reach semi-finals.

Black Caps:
 The current New Zealand team is definitely not an underdog. This time they are real contender for the cup. The team is lead by arguably one of the best Kiwi batsman in recent years, Brendon McCullum. This man can win matches single handedly. Kiwis playing all their matches in home which will make their bowlers more effective. The bowlers too had wonderful seasons before this world cup, hope they will continue it. McCullum, Williamson and Ross Taylor have to do the bulk of scoring. I'm very happy about the inclusion of Daniel Vettori- such a wonderful player. For all their current performance this team should reach semi-finals quite easily.

Players to watch in these teams:

Remaining teams in next post.