By CricketCountry Staff
Shane Warne, who has always bashed England during his 17 years of Ashes, believes England will win the One-Day Internationals despite the absence of Kevin Pietersen.
Published: Jun 28, 2012, 01:01 PM (IST)
Edited: Jun 28, 2012, 01:01 PM (IST)
Shane Warne said England are clear favourites despite Australia being world No 1 © Getty Images
By CricketCountry Staff
London: Jun 28, 2012
Shane Warne, who has always bashed England during his 17 years of Ashes, believes England will win the One-Day Internationals despite the absence of Kevin Pietersen.
“England are clear favourites despite Australia being world No 1.”
Warne earlier said that he was shocked by Pietersen’s decision to retire.
“Any team that hasn’t got Kevin Pietersen is significantly weaker,” Warne told the Independent.
“He’s a match-winner so that’s a big loss.
It staggers me and I’m very surprised that the ECB didn’t try and negotiate that better, drop their egos and say, okay we understand this, we want to keep our best players playing all the time.”
He added: “I think it’s just a bit too much ego for my liking from the ECB. Who wouldn’t want Kevin Pietersen in your side? He’s a match-winner and he puts bums on seats because people love watching him play.”
“He rubs off on the rest of the players. So to me it’s a huge loss.”
“People might give up more one-day cricket or they might give up Twenty20,” added the legendary leg-spinner, who contrasted Pietersen’s situation with that of Michael Clarke, the Australia captain.
Michael Clarke‘s given up Twenty20 in Australia because he can’t play all three forms at that level, but you can’t imagine Australia dropping him and saying don’t worry about one-day cricket, just stick to Tests.”
“Australia will look at England’s team without Kevin and will feel a lot better bowling to the rest,” Warne was quoted as saying by www.thesun.co.uk.
However he emphasized, “It’s pretty hard to look past England. They’ve won six home one-day series in a row.”
