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ICC World Cup 2019: Players who can have maximum impact on the tournament
Picked on the basis of big-stage performance and dependency of the team, here’s a list of players to watch out for in the upcoming ICC World Cup 2019
A list of players to watch out for in this World Cup —or any World Cup in any sport — can go as wrong as asking a goalkeeper to be a wicket-keeper. But while sport journalists may be a lot of things —opinionated when they should be objective, always looking for that unnecessary adjective—risk-averse they are not. So with ‘confidence in confidence alone’, here’s our pick.
Andre Russell
Chris Gayle may be the ‘Universe Boss’ but the way this Jamaican bossed the IPL should make him one of the most watched players. A Russell-Bumrah match-up at the death could make for a classic duel on June 27. Russell’s hand-eye coordination and his ability to play late helps him make optimum use of those made-at-the-gym muscles. Fifty-four sixes in 52 ODIs don’t quite tell the tale of the man who hit 52 sixes in 14 IPL games this term. And his bowling strike rate is way better than Ben Stokes’ and Hardik Pandya’s, all-rounders tipped for a glorious English summer.
Jos Buttler
If there is one guy who can share champagne and caviar with Russell and Gayle in the sixes’ club, it’s him. England in a pickle during a chase or they need to set a massive target? He is to the team what Jeeves was to Wooster. “He seems to have a gear not many of us have,” said England captain Eoin Morgan after a recent 50-ball century against Pakistan. Buttler has hands that move so fast that he would have had the quickest draw in the West were he born in another century and in another country. “I don’t know how you bowl to him,” said Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur. Buttler has averaged over 50 since the last World Cup. More importantly, he has been scoring at the rate of 181.20 in the last 10 overs since the World Cup in Australia.
David Warner
Looks like forced hibernation has sand-papered him into an even more explosive player. He used the IPL to tell the world that, scoring 692 runs, 99 more than KL Rahul whose aggregate was second best despite playing only 12 games. Along with Fakhar Zaman and Quinton de Kock, Warner (96.55) has a strike rate just right for the perfect opening gambit.
Rashid Khan
Frankly, he wasn’t a shoo-in on this list. Imran Tahir and Adil Rashid provided enough spin punch, to say nothing of Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal and Shadab Khan. Yes, the wickets are likely to favour batsmen but discount this exciting Afghan at your peril. Hopping from one T20 league to another has given Rashid the confidence to fear no one. Bring on the World Cup, he has said, and it doesn’t sound like an empty boast. Picking his googlies—there is a special one where the ball goes over the back of his fingers, he says—is a challenge not many batsmen seem up to.
Virat Kohli
The world’s best ODI batsman. He is the fastest to 8000, and fastest to 10000 runs (54 games less than Sachin Tendulkar). Ian Chappell thinks he could be the greatest of all time in the 50-over format. Still need convincing? Well take this: Sir Viv Richards thinks the India captain reminds him of himself. To Martin Crowe, he was the amalgam of all things bright and beautiful in Sehwag, Tendulkar and Dravid. In 11 ODIs this year, he has three hundreds—taking him to one short of 50 tons—one half-century, and three scores in the forties. Kohli bats with brio, but is also the champion of the chase.
Jasprit Bumrah
Even flat-track bullies fear someone so fast that Jeff Thomson takes notice. Add an action that makes it difficult to pick the ball and you have quite the package. This man leads the pack of exciting fast bowlers that includes Kagiso Rabada, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins. T20s may be skewed in favour of the batsmen, but in the IPL final he bowled 13 dot balls and didn’t leak a boundary. Death overs is when things tend to go helter-skelter but Bumrah appears like he is Dhoni with the ball; a wry smile when Quinton de Kock sneaked four byes off him in the IPL final is proof. Mumbai Indians deserve credit for polishing the rough edges and in the company of Lasith Malinga and with Zaheer Khan in coaching staff, Bumrah has developed into a bowler who strikes fear of the kind one 5-wicket haul doesn’t quite convey.
