Champions trophy, the clash of eight top cricket teams, will begin at England from 1st of June 2017. It is no less than the world cup. There are two groups of teams:
Group A: England, Australia, New zealand, Bangladesh
Group B: India, South africa, Srilanka, Pakistan
The hosts England are in very good form. With the home advantage, they are favorites to win this trophy. Under the leadership of Morgan, the team has delivered good results recently. While the batting of England is quiet strong and bat deep as the Moen, Rashid, Woakes and Plumkett are all good with bat too, the bowling is also equally strong making England one of the tough contenders.
Key players: Hales, Root, Stokes, Morgan, Woakes.
Australia is also in very good form. And they are always tough to beat at such international tournaments. Steven Smith is in good form and took Pune team to the final of IPL and had almost won it for them. Australia have checked all the boxes for preparation of CT. Still, they lack a quality spin bowling option.
Key players: Warner, Smith, Maxwell, Hazlewood, Cummins.
New Zealand had played very well in previous editions of CT. But somehow they have not been able to show enough nerve to overcome the knock out games. If their batting lineup click consistently they can be dangerous team as they have some terrific scorers in Guptill, Williamson and Broom.
Key players: Kane Williamson, Santner, Broom, Neesham, Guptill.
Bangladesh have shown that they cannot be considered minnows anymore. The team has shown consistency in batting in recent times. Bowling department is a bit worry with big teams like England, Australia and New Zealand in their group.
Key players: Tamim Iqbal, Shakib al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Mustafizur Rehman, Rahim.
INDIA has been in very good form of late. Virat Kohli has been the mainstay of Indian batting. Bowling is also good. Ashwin and Jadeja may prove to be deadly weapons for the opponents in this series. India is another team with top quality batsmen at top in Rohit, Dhawan and Rahane to compliment Kohli.
Key Players: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ashwin, Jadeja, Yuvraj Singh.
South Africa has a very good batting lineup with the best opening pair according to me in deCock and Amla. I feel the african team may go in semifinal along with India.
Key players: Amla, DeCock, AB devilliers, Tahir, Rabada.
Sri Lanka is a team in transition with senior players leaving and the younger lot still trying to affirm their place in team. The captain Matthews has not played cricket in recent times due to injury. The team also lack in good bowling strength.
Key players: Chandimal, Matthews, Gunaratne, Kulsekara, K Mendis
Pakistan will come in tournament with relatively less experienced team. The captain Sarfaraz himself have not played much matches as captain. The team will rely heavily upon new talent like Babar Azam.
Key players: Babar Azam, M Hafeez, W Riaz, M Amir, Azhar Ali.
Predictions:
Australia and England from group A
South africa and India from group B
to play semi finals.
Australia and India are favorites to win the tournament.