ICC World Cup 2019: Captains of all Teams Reveal One Cricketer They Want in Their Team
May 24, 2019 at 12:45 PM
The upcoming ICC World Cup 2019 in England and Wales will commence on May 30 with host England facing South Africa in the curtain-raiser. The finals will be on July 14 at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground. Ahead of the start, skippers of all the ten participating teams met for a media day and involved in an interactive session.
Meanwhile, each captain was present at the Cricket World Cup media day and were put on the spot by a schoolchild who asked which one rival player they would add to their own squads if given the opportunity. While other captains were happy to respond, England’s Eoin Morgan, West Indies’ Jason Holder and Afghanistan’s Gulbadin Naib avoided the questions.
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Morgan gently avoided the question and said that he would love to have former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting in his side. Ponting is currently in England with the Australian team as the assistant coach to help the Aussie side defend their title.
“I came to know about Ricky Ponting coaching Australian team so definitely I would love to have him in my side,” Morgan said.
Indian National Cricket Team skipper Virat Kohli likes to play it in the frontfoot and gave a clear cut answer. Kohli said if Ab de Villiers hadn’t retired, he would have gone with him. But with de Villiers not available for selection, Kohli went with South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis.
“AB is retired I would have definitely picked him but have to pick from the active lot so I’ll pick FAF du Plessis, he is a great friend and definitely someone with whom I would like to bat,” Kohli said.
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Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed batted for England’s Jos Buttler while Jason Holder and Afghanistan skipper Gulbadin Naib refrained from picking any specific player.
” Jos Buttler, would pick Buttler in my side,” Sarfraz said.
Faf du Plessis, meanwhile, had a varied choice as he picked Jasprit Bumrah and Pat Cummins as the bowlers while Virat Kohli was at the top of his choice among batsman. Du Plessis believes the bowlers will play a key role in the winning the tournament. He echoed the same line of that famous quote saying ‘batsman win you matches while bowlers win you tournament’.
“Pitches are really good, there are going to be plenty of runs so I believe bowling is going to win u matches in later part of the tournament. Bumrah is bowling really well in all formats and from Australia Pattrick Cummins. I would like to have bowlers like them in my team and batsman would definitely be Virat Kohli,”du Plessis said.
To conclude Aussie skipper Aaron Finch picked South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada saying that he can win matches on his own. On the other hand, Dimuth Karunaratne went with Ben Stokes while Mashrafe Mortaza picked Virat Kohli.
“I would pick KG Rabada. He is phenomenal and someone who can win you games on his own,” Finch said.
“I would include ben stokes in my team. He can win u matches on his day and he is someone I would like to have on my side,” Karunaratne was clear with his opinion.
“That guy sitting there, Virat Kohli. He is someone I would love to have in my team,” Mortaza, who is playing his last World Cup ended the poll.