Road to the 2019 Cricket World Cup

A World Cup win secures the most coveted trophy in cricket. Every team feels privileged to be out there. Notable and match-winning performances from players ensures fame, recognition and honour back home. They become national heroes overnight. Few turn into villains. The thought that a premature exit would mean waiting after four years goads players to perform at their best.

Preparations start years in advance. Youngsters are given opportunities to prove their worth before unleashing them in the World Cup. With the amount of cricket played, big guns are rested against weaker sides and potential replacements and back up players tried. With a few months to go for the 2019 World Cup, all the qualified teams are in the process of finalizing the combination most likely to secure a world cup win.

A significant change has been made to the format - Round Robin is back after the 1992 World Cup. As a result, the prolonged and only pre-knockout round would see all teams competing against each other for the four semi-final spots.

Temperament, fitness, adjusting to the travel and ability to peak at the right time matter. Current dismal performances of few teams like Sri Lanka do not augur well for the fans loving competitive cricket. To reduce the number of so-called meaningless or irrelevant matches, ICC has trimmed the number of teams to 10.

England appears to have the most settled team at present. Their openers Alex Hales and Jason Roy and middle order shepherded by Joe Root and the power-packed lower order of Jos Butler and Jonny Bairstow leave little room for error for the opponents.

They have made putting on mammoth totals a habit of late. With Moeen Ali and David Willey bringing in varieties, England stake a strong claim to one of the knockout berths.

India, though struggling to sort out their middle order conundrums, must enter the semifinals without sweating much. The top order is filled with one-dimensional cricketers and this burdens their bowlers. The revelation of Kedhar Jadhav’s bowling appears to be a timely balm for the selectors’ headaches.

With the world’s best batsman Virat Kohli leading and with pitches in England easing down these days, their batting should be capable of putting on or chasing high totals. The bowling appears settled with Bhuvneshwar, Bumrah, Chahal and Kuldeep making life easy for the fifth bowler- Hardik Pandya.

Australia have had major setbacks with David Warmer and Steven Smith- the core of their top order and leadership, banned. It appears that they would be drafted into the side before the World Cup as they have been allowed to play club cricket - it would be a surprising and bold move if they are not. The tournament would be poorer without them. With an unsettled bowling line-up Australia do not start as favorites. All said and done, one can never write this team off.

Pakistan are always dark horses and the bowling arsenal never appears weak. They have a knack of progressing well in big tournaments. The only chink in their armour will be their batting which has a propensity to be ordinary. The fact that they won the 1992 World Cup which had the same format should be reassuring for them.

New Zealand and South Africa have reached and exited at the knockout stage several times. Both normally come loaded with multi-dexterous cricketers. South Africans will have to win the world cup to get rid of the chokers tag. This side appears to be weaker than the ones which participated in the earlier editions.

They would also rue their fate and Duckworth and Lewis methods must appear cruel to them - they were at the receiving end in 1992 and 2003 when they were hosts. New Zealand’s best result was the appearance in the final in the previous edition. The tame loss to Australia would be a forgettable outing though.

Sri Lanka has run into problems and controversies on and off the field. It appears that they would need a new captain to infuse fresh energy and belief. The sad state of their cricket certainly does not go well with fans. Apart from the victory in 1996, they were finalists in 2007 and 2011.

West Indies would hope to have inspirations from the first three World Cups played in England. Their victory would be greeted by all staunch supporters of other countries - from the current state of affairs, it appears to be a fantasy though. Afghanistan would be looking to convince the world that they belong to the elite league and Bangladesh - certainly capable of a few upsets, would like to throw the plans of other teams into disarray.

It remains to be seen how teams cope up with the with the Round Robin format. India and England appear to be certainties in the semifinals based on current form. Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa would look to seal the other two berths - with a few surprises, the whole World Cup promises to be exciting and competitive cricket is what fans all around the world would like to see.