England skipper, Jos Buttler has recently stated that hosts India are favorites to win the ODI World Cup once again.
He and his team have arrived in Guwahati to play their three warm-up matches as final preparation.
Meanwhile, the last three editions of the World Cup have seen a new shift as home teams have gone on to win the trophy in home conditions.
It started with the 2011 World Cup that India won under MS Dhoni, then Australia won in Australia in 2015 and finally, England won in England in 2019.
England are the twin champions of the T20 and ODI World Cups.
However, even they too have performed below average in India in recent times, losing in 2017 and 2021.
Therefore, Buttler has given no reassurances that they will win the World Cup once again.
But, he has stated that India is surely a team to beat in this tournament because of home advantage.
The clear favourites are India. You only have to look at the past few World Cups- England won in England, Australia won in Australia and India won in India before that.
Adding further, he says,
History tells you that it’s quite advantageous to be the home nation and they’re obviously a brilliant team. In their own conditions, India are fantastic. I certainly see them as favourites.
We’re going out there to try to win a World Cup- we don’t see ourselves as defending champions. It’s very much a new tournament and we know it’s going to be tough because there are some top, top teams.
But we know we’re a really good team, a dangerous team, we’ve got a lot of experience in the group and we back ourselves.
Meanwhile, England will start off their campaign for the 2023 World Cup against runners-up New Zealand.
Their match will be played in the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad next Thursday.
Buttler highlights the importance of IPL and says it’s helped the English players
Furthermore, England’s 15-member squad has eight players who were there in the previous edition of the World Cup with the sole exception of Gus Atkinson who is yet to feature in the IPL.
On the other hand, Buttler and his other teammates have a good experience of playing in Indian conditions because of the IPL.
Speaking on the same, skipper Buttler says,
It gives you a sense of familiarity.
Furthermore, he says,
A lot of cricket grounds we’ll play at, guys will have played there and know the surroundings. They will understand the pitches and conditions, more so than if they’d not been there before.
There’s a lot of other teams that have that advantage as well with guys playing a lot of IPL cricket, it’s been around for quite a few years now so everyone’s accustomed to playing in India in that sense.
Jofra Archer: England’s traveling reserve and sole hope of winning the World Cup
Additionally, Jofra Archer is the only traveling reserve that England has brought with them for the World Cup.
It is understood that he is still in rehab at home with a stress fracture in his right elbow.
Therefore, he will now be making a quick entry into the squad and will be available for selection only if one of England’s pacers gets injured.
However, the team management is not rushing the pacer in but Buttler is quite happy to have his main bowler in the squad.
He’s someone who will go on and have so much impact for England. Everyone is hopeful this will be the end of his injuries and we can see him back on the park more consistently.
Adding further, he says,
He’s such a superstar, you want to see these guys perform, he’s someone who puts bums on seats.
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