New Delhi: The 2019 edition of crickets biggest showpiece event gets underway this Thursday and while pundits are busy debating whether India and England will do justice to their favourites tag, former Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne has once again bowled the perfect googly. He has backed Aaron Finch and boys to go on and lift the Cup come July 14 at the historic Lords cricket ground.
Warne has backed his choice with mathematics and that involved not just the performance of the team in the lead-up to the World Cup, but also the return of two of their strongest players in Steve Smith and David Warner. But the legend doesn't stop there and says that the fact that Aussies love to rise to the challenge of big-ticket events will work in their favour as well.
"I think everybody wrote Australia off because they were pretty ordinary and played some poor cricket over the last 12 months, but over the last couple of months, the ODI team has found its belief. They have started to think like all the Aussie sides of yesteryears and they think they can win it from anywhere. And you can't manufacture that. You have to do it a few times.
"I think going into the World Cup, India and England have to be the favourites because they have played the best cricket in recent times. But if you look back at the history of how Australia performed at World Cups, they won the last World Cup and have won 4 of the last 6 tournaments so they enjoy the big tournament and I believe they can win the World Cup and I think they will win the World Cup.
"However, they have to get past a very strong India and England side. If you ask me who are the favourites, it is India and England, but I just think Australia have come back together at the right time and you put Warner and Smith in that mix, it is suddenly looking a very good side.
"He (Smith) is a huge player. If you look back at the time in March last year and you say who were the top five players in the world, you would say Kohli, AB de Villiers, Steve Smith, David Warner and Kane Williamson. So Australia had two of the top five players and to lose them was a big loss," he pointed.
Moving from Australia to India, it is no secret that Warne has worked closely with Kuldeep Yadav and the latter is a self-confessed Warne fan. But the spin wizard revealed that he has also worked with Yuzvendra Chahal and that the two could in fact hold the trump card for India
if the wicket does take turn in England this summer.