CWC 2019: Ravi Shastri picks his favorites for the World Cup

What's the story?

Indian head coach Ravi Shastri has picked England as his favourite to win the 2019 World Cup. He also insisted on picking a 16 member squad for the mega event.

In case you didn't know...

On Monday, the BCCI selectors announced the 15-member squad for the upcoming prestigious tournament. There were quite a few surprises as they picked Dinesh Karthik ahead of Rishabh Pant and Vijay Shankar ahead of Ambati Rayudu. The Hyderabadi batsman shared his disappointment via Twitter which has gone viral.

The heart of the matter

Ravi Shastri said that he wasn't involved in the selection process. However, he would have preferred to have a 16-member squad for the tournament.

"I don’t get involved in selection. If we have any opinion, we let the captain known. When you only have 15 to pick, there is bound to be someone or the other who misses out, which is very unfortunate. I would have preferred 16 players. We had mentioned to the ICC that in a tournament that long, 16 players makes sense. But the diktat was 15."

The Indian coach feels that the team has achieved huge success in the past three years and can go all the way in the tournament.

"If you look at last five years, the way the Indian team has performed, they have always been in the top two or three. To be in top two or three for five years in a row, No.1 in Tests, again top three in T20 cricket you can’t depend on one player.”

He has picked England as his favourites for the World Cup. He feels they have covered all the basis.

"England has been the most consistent team over the last two years. They have multi-dimensional players. They have depth in bowling and batting. And they are playing at home. So they would start as favourites.”

What's next?

Ravi Shastri earlier hinted that India might play Virat Kohli at number four. But this was not the case during the Australia series and we have to wait to see whether they spring up any surprise during the tournament.