Former captain Michael Vaughan is highly impressed with England's current pool of cricketers and said he expects the three-time finalists to win their first World Cup in 2015.
Published: Sep 04, 2011, 11:44 AM (IST)
Edited: Sep 04, 2011, 11:44 AM (IST)
England have never won the World Cup, even though they have reached the finals thrice © Getty Images
London: Sep 4, 2011
Former captain Michael Vaughan is highly impressed with England’s current pool of cricketers and said he expects the three-time finalists to win their first World Cup in 2015.
“I expect them to win in 2015. England will have the group of players and strength in depth – they’ll be the team to beat,” Vaughan told ‘BBC’.
“England have a pool of 20-22 players they can rotate.
Five years ago they didn’t have that many that could play international cricket.
“Now if you dropped or rested three or four players the ones coming in would be of a very good standard,” he added.
Till date England have never won the World Cup, even though they have reached the finals thrice. Infact, they have not progressed beyond the quarter-finals since 1992.
But the last two years have seen England rise, winning the World Twenty20 in 2010, securing an Ashes victory in Australia and achieving the top Test status recently by whitewashing India 0-4 in a recently-concluded series.
The 36-year-old Ashes winning captain also backed England’s decision to rest Kevin Pietersen from the ongoing ODI series against India and said the star batsman will be an important part of 2015 World Cup campaign.
“I think the selectors are trying to find any little formula to get the best from KP. They are trying to find that spark that gets him back to how he played in South Africa on his first tour. The last two years have not been his best,” said Vaughan.
“I think in 2015 we’ll need [Somerset batsman] Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes [the player in the side in place of Pietersen] and [leg spinner] Scott Borthwick. They will be the core of the team,” he added.(PTI)
