Stability makes India hot favourites for World Cup: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zaheer-Abbas-c98435
The batting great of Pakistan Zaheer Abbas feels Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s squad has the best chance to win the ICC World Cup 2011.
Abbas stressed that the stability factor in the Indian team makes them the hot favourites for the coveted trophy.
“... the hot favourite, at the moment, is India…their strength comes from stability. It has just the right combination of youth and experience,” said the former captain of Pakistan.
India will play most of their World Cup matches at home. Abbas, who is regarded as one of the finest batsmen produced by Pakistan, believes home conditions would be an additional advantage for the Men in Blue.
The 63-year-old hailed Dhoni’s performance both as an individual player as well as the team leader. He added that the Ranchi boy is lucky to have the services of a star cricketer in the form of Sachin Tendulkar.
Zaheer also warned the teams against complacency when facing the struggling defending champions, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746. He said that the Aussies have won the last three editions of cricket’s flagship tournament and should not be taken lightly.
Abbas believes besides http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 will go into the mega cricketing event, starting this Saturday, with realistic chances of lifting the coveted trophy.
When asked about his country team, the former Pakistan captain said the side lags slightly behind the top five contenders. He also slammed Pakistan’s depleted pace attack.
“Pakistan's pace attack seems really vulnerable. There is a question mark over Shoaib Akhtar's fitness while http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Khan-c71319,” he said.
According to Abbas, this leaves the Afridi-led side with limited pace bowling options and that could hurt http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 in the quadrennial tournament.
The 10th edition of International Cricket Council’s flagship tournament started with a bang at the Bangabandhu stadium in Dhaka on Thursday.
The opening match will be played between India and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 on Saturday, 19 February at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur.
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