With the Cricket World Cup just around the corner, two England legends have delivered their predictions for the tournament.
Former captain Michael Vaughan and spinner Phil Tufnell dissected the 2019 World Cup on Monday’s Tuffers and Vaughan Cricket Show.
England are the pre-tournament favourites and both Vaughan and Tufnell have backed the hosts to lift the trophy, although Vaughan fears defending champions Australia could deny Eoin Morgan’s in-form side.
The former cricketers believe England’s Jos Buttler will continue his superb run of form form and finish the World Cup as the Player of the Tournament, but disagreed over who would be the top run-scorer and wicket-taker.
Vaughan and Tufnell’s World Cup predictions
Top run-scorer
MV: Kane Williamson (New Zealand)
PT: Jonny Bairstow (England)
Top wicket-taker
MV: Pat Cummins (Australia)
PT: Adil Rashid (England)
Player of the tournament
MV: Jos Buttler (England)
PT: Jos Buttler (England)
Semi-finalists
MV: England, Australia, Pakistan, India
PT: England, India, Australia, New Zealand
Winner
MV: England or Australia
PT: England
England are closing in on victory but that’s not curbed the enthusiasm of the Afghanistan fans at The Oval! #ENGvAFG pic.twitter.com/S4klaYqAZK
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) May 27, 2019
England kick-start their World Cup campaign against South Africa at The Oval on Thursday. The hosts smashed Afghanistan by nine wickets in their final warm-up match on Monday.
Speaking after the match, Morgan said: ‘We have felt ready the last week or so, even if we didn’t play these warm-up games.
‘As a whole I was very happy with the preparation. When you play as convincingly as that it builds confidence.
‘Everyone is going to feel that anticipation and excitement of playing the first game and it will be different than any other day and I will be encouraging guys to embrace it.’
