With eight of the strongest teams competing, the tournament looks open for all

If the warm up matches are an indication, it’s going to be a very high scoring Champions Trophy. So much so that even 330 in 50 overs isn’t considered safe anymore.

Just as Sachin says in his recently released docu-drama, 350 in 2003 was like scaling the Himalayas. Not anymore. Teams with serious firepower like England or Australia or South Africa and most certainly India can and does have the potential to chase down big scores. Under the impact of T20, teams have started to reassess the way they have approached a 50-over run chase. One boundary an over is no longer considered impossible and in the remaining 250 balls 120 or 130 is easily gettable.

All of this makes the Champions Trophy the most open cricket tournament ever. Favourites are in name only and every team has the potential to beat the best on a given day. With the pitches proving to be good for batting, teams that bat deep go in with an advantage and with most matches being day games, the toss is less likely to be a decisive factor.

While saying it’s an open tournament, it does seem that at home and with the kind of firepower at their disposal, England go in as the team to beat. In Ben Stokes they have the best all-rounder in the world. In Jos Butler, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy and Alex Hales, there’s serious hitting ability and in Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Jake Ball and others decent variety in bowling. If, and little doubt it’s a big if, Stokes gets injured, things will get difficult for England. There’s no one who can replace him and in such a scenario, Australia under Steve Smith will be the team to beat in that group.

With Mitchell Starc leading the Australian attack, Smith will believe he has a chance. Having won the last 50 over white ball tournament, the Australians know how to win. This is what will give them an edge over a talented New Zealand and a mercurial Bangladesh. In the other group, it looks like India and South Africa as the two stand out teams. South Africa, who are long due, with AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, David Miller, Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock, they have a formidable batting unit in any condition and ground. The bowling is slightly underdone but Kagiso Rabada and Kishan Maharaj are no pushovers.


For India, it’s the middle order that will make or break the tournament. The top order in Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli will surely do the part and it’ll all boil down to how Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya and Kedar Jadhav play. Can Dhoni push the clock back and turn match-winner again and can Yuvraj be consistent like he has been in ICC tournaments? Is Hardik, the most improved Indian player in the last six months, finally the answer to India’s all-rounder woes and is Kedar a finished product in alien away conditions? With a fast bowling quartet that has the ability to contain and pick wickets at the death, it’ll be Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the middle overs and the middle order that will determine India’s journey in the tournament.

A team full of experience, it’s expected India will soak in the pressure better against Pakistan come the 4th of June in Birmingham. However much Fahim Ashraf impressed in the warm up game against Bangladesh, an India-Pakistan match situation is an entirely different ball game. And he won’t get shortened 47 meter boundaries in Edgbaston come the big day. This one game may well determine the future of these two teams in the tournament as the psychological life the winner is expected to get will sure get them to the last four.

Sri Lanka, the other team in the group, is not the Sri Lanka that made the finals of the 2011 World Cup and Angelo Matthews and Lasith Malinga notwithstanding, aren’t expected to go the full distance. Having said all of the above, it’s worth repeating that this is indeed the most open and competitive Champions Trophy ever and is a better tournament than the World Cup. In the World Cup you get some easy games and one bad day isn’t enough to knock you out of the competition. In the champions trophy one bad day and it can all be curtains.


Virat and his team know that. And the Indian captain, as we all know, is due. A man for the big stage and one to stand up under pressure, don’t be surprised if Virat leads from the front in the stage that matters. It is his first ICC event as captain and he would do all he can to defend the crown.