Leg-spinning great Shane Warne and former India skipper Sourav Ganguly ended up striking a bet with each other during a friendly prediction banter. The two cricketing icons were speaking at the “Aaj Tak Salaam Cricket” conclave in London today (May 31) when the discussion related to the Australia – England contest in the Champions Trophy kicked.
It all started when Michel Clarke put forward his opinion claiming that it will be an India – Australia showdown at the finals of the Champions Trophy. Ganguly had contrasting views and conceded that England would rather make it to the finals again.
Warne wasn’t impressed with contradicting statement and stated, “Who are England’s match winner?”
Ganguly has his favourites in his mind and named Joe Root and Jos Buttler while adding that England was overall a better side than Australia.
Warner, however, refused to accept this for a valid answer. But, instead of stretching the conversion ahead, the Australia star, concluded with a simple yet interesting bet.
He asked Ganguly to buy him dinner and wear an Australian shirt if the Steve Smith-led side won. Warne added that he would wear an England jersey if the hosts defeated Australia.
Both have agreed for the bet!
The two sides will meet on June 10 at Edgbaston. It will be interesting to see who will wear which jersey after the match night.
Ganguly’s confidence in the English setup is not based on hollow judgements. The hosts have a very strong side and have been labelled as the potential winners of the tournament already.
The presence of explosive batting order and versatile bowling attack has transformed them into a formidable limited overs unit.
Australia, on the hand, also have arrived with the best possible squad. The perineal favourites at the ICC events also possess the same qualities which their arch rivals have developed in the last couple of years.
In fact, they seem to have an edge over the hosts in terms of bowling due to the presence of the four-man pace attack featuring Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, James Pattinson and Josh Hazlewood.
Things will really spice up when the two super strong sides meet later on in a matter of few days.