Which team will win Champions Trophy

pakistan am gonna go for!!!!

Let me be more unbiased here.

1 - Um, South Africa, Australia and India were the favourites before the start of the tournament. Now that most team have played their first game, i think i should go for Sri Lanka as the favourites becuase for me they are a complete package, their fielding is awesome, bowling with M factor (Malinga, Mendis and Murli) is tremendous and batting with likes of Jayasurya, Dilshan, Sameraweera, Jaywardene and Sangakara looks very strong too.

2- Australia, While I dont rate their team too highly at the moment, mainly because of lack of destructive batting at top order, I do think they are second favorites mainly because of their ability to play well in big tournaments and also that they relish SA conditions. They have good pacers in Siddle, Lee and Johnson and Hauritz is again useful ODI bowler who can keep things tight and chip in with wickets as well. The middle order looks fine but their weakness to me is top order. Watson isnt really consistent and Paine is still a newbie in intl cricket who will find batting against quality pacers at crunch times a different medicine.

3 - South Africa :- Having defeated Aus at both home and away relatively easily they are confident ODI unit. They are also playing at home and have all the bases covered with Steyn, Parnell, Ntini and Kallis taking pace deptt and Botha has developed into very good limited overs spinner. Their only weakness is to falter when it matters.

These were my favourites for the tournament. Now the rest, not in fav order:

India :- Another team who is high on confidence having won last 5 ODI series and triangular but as I have seen over the years the bowling and fielding falters at crucial junctures. Nehra is a wicket taker but he goes for a lot of runs. Ishant, well he has a lot of talent but he has this thing in his mind to bowl short. When he learn about himself and his strength (bowl just back of a length) than he can be an amazing bowler. I still believe the the pace bowlers will relish SA conditions but their ability to bowl at death is question mark in absence of Zaheer. Harbhajan and part time spinners can control middle overs well. Batting is full of firepower with return of Gambhir but they will miss Sehwag and Yuvraj who makes chasing scores such an easy task although they still have likes Sachin, Dravid, Dhoni and Gambhir.

Pakistan :- A team with loads of talent and individual brilliance but they are so unpredictable. If they manage to beat India in league stages I expect them to do very well. Gul, Aamer and Asif makes formidable pace attack and Ajmal and Afridi are brilliant spinners in middle overs. Their weakness is clearly their batting who hasnt faced top quality bowling for long now. They are another team who are good at defending totals rather than chasing them. But they definately look strong with Mohammed yusuf and Rana naveed coming back in the team.

England :- England have pace attack to do well in SA conditions. While they may be having horror of series against Oz I think they have in them to put aside India and Pakistan in pacey conditions. Surely they are missing KP in middle order to provide them impetus, selectors don't know how to pick a team. They need an experience batsmen, like Robert Key, in the middle order not full of young un'. Bopara is clearly out of form but they dont have any replacement.

New Zealand :- I cant see them winning two matches during league stage. Their batting lineup is inexperienced and falters time and again against good bowling attacks. Most of them will be playing in SA for first time as well. They have good pace attack with Bond returning and Vettori really controls the middler overs well but I fear their batting will let them down.

West Indies :- They are farce team of Champions trophy and presence of Bangladesh ahead of them would have been better idea. Cant see them winning any matches.

Sri Lanka can win this trophy because they are most consistent than other teams whether it is India, Australia or South Africa.

Eventhough I want India to win, I think its going to be Sri Lanka.

Because of the pitch (bowler friendly) better teams (like SA and Sri Lanka) didn't neccassarily go through. Even with that i still feel this tournament has been succesful and was never boring.

Originally posted by: darpan12...

Because of the pitch (bowler friendly) better teams (like SA and Sri Lanka) didn't neccassarily go through. Even with that i still feel this tournament has been succesful and was never boring.

You do know that SA and SL have great bowling attacks?

Originally posted by: starstrucK.

You do know that SA and SL have great bowling attacks?

Ha, so i forgot to answer this one.

Erm.. yes they do but the team batting 2nd have the biggest disadvantage because it seams a lot more at night than during the day. 😛And both South Africa and Sri Lanka lost to England/New Zealand when they were chasing at night.