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'India doesn't have the same mystery': Greg Chappell declares Australia, England among favourites to win World Cup
Greg Chappell spoke about how the current generation of England and Australia players know the Indian conditions well.
England and Australia are among the teams who have announced their preliminary squads for the 2023 World Cup. The tournament is being hosted exclusively by India for the first time, with the country hosting it with neighbours Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in 2011, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 1996 and with Pakistan in 1987. The latter was the first time that the World Cup was hosted by a nation outside of the United Kingdom.
England, who are the defending champions, and five-time winners Australia have been named among the favourites to reach the semi-finals at least by most former players. Greg Chappell, the batting great who is a former Australia captain and an ex-India head coach as well, has said that while the Asian teams have an advantage playing in India, Australia and England are no longer too alien to the conditions in the country.
“I think the home team will have an advantage and I think the Asian teams will perform well in India. But I don't think India has the same mystery for the Australian players, who spent quite a bit of time there in recent years. They get to understand the variations in conditions. Some England players too now spend time in India,” Chappell said on RevSportz
Chappell, however, said that India will always be favourites considering just how strong they are at home in any format. The former Australia captain recounted how he used to observe the team dominating their opponents at home while he was head coach of India from 2005 to 2007.
“Indian team have always coped well at home. It was pretty interesting for me to sit in the dressing room and look at the visiting teams. There was always a feeling that the Indian team were pretty comfortable and could cope with whatever was thrown at them in their home conditions and respond well. I think India start favorites in any match at the World Cup. The opposition has the work to do to pull them back,” he said.
Virat Kohli at the stage where special effort is needed to score
Chappell recalled a conversation he had with Sachin Tendulkar when he was head coach about how it gets more difficult to bat as a player gets older. “As one gets older, the oppositions tends to know more about the player and then they know how to bowl better and what fields to set,” he said. Chappell said that for a player to score the way he used to when he was younger, he has to think like they used to back then. "And that means getting rid of some of these extraneous information, keep it simple and focus on the basic things.”
He said that India talisman Virat Kohli is probably at that stage of his career. “I have no doubt that Virat is in that stage of his career and hence it requires a special effort to score runs. And for that you need to decompress yourself and just keep it simple. Virat also needs to go into these games mentally fresh and he knows what he needs to do for that. If Virat can achieve that, he will have a very good tournament,” he added.
