ICC World Cup 2019 | India will go to England as one of the favorites, says Paddy Upton

ICC World Cup 2019 | India will go to England as one of the favorites, says Paddy Upton

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Former Indian support staff member and present Rajasthan Royals coach, Paddy Upton has stated that India will travel to England as one of the favorites to lift the ICC World Cup 2019. Upton further heaped praise on Indian captain Virat Kohli whom the former also labeled as a ā€˜fitness fanaticā€™.

The Virat Kohli-led Indian team has turned themselves into an all-round unit with explosive batting and calculative bowling to emerge as one of the firm favorites to go all the way in the upcoming ICC World Cup 2019. Paddy Upton, who served under former India coach Gary Kirsten when MS Dhoni & Co. won the World Cup in 2011, claimed that India will head to England as one of the stronger teams.

"I think the Indian team is an exceptionally good team at the moment, very balanced in terms of the batting options they have got, the bowling optionsā€¦ both the seamers and the spinnersā€¦ very good fielding sideā€¦. So India go to England as one of the favourites that are playing away from home. We donā€™t know what those English wickets are going to be like, if they are going to be fairly spicy or slightly tired from being in the middle of the season. Theyā€™ve also got England and Australia who are going to be huge competitors for that top spot, but India are definitely in the running," Upton said in a recent interview with The Telegraph.

The Rajasthan Royals coach also heaped praise on Indian captain, Virat Kohli, who is truly one of the best batsmen in the world at the moment across all three formats. Upton said that the Delhi-born cricketer is the first Indian captain who is a ā€˜fitness fanaticā€™.

"The most significant has been his evolution as a batsman. He has really learnt in all three formats of the game how to set a total if batting first or chase down a total if batting second and he is clearly one of the best in the world. When he goes into bat, he never falls behind in the run rate, never goes ahead and really irks the opposition. No bowler really dominates him. He is able to keep that scoreboard ticking non-stop and it is like slow death injected into the opposition bowling attack. Just his abilityā€¦ whether it is for ODI or T20, heā€™s got a remarkable ability to pace his innings to be able to get to the total at the right timeā€¦ every reason that he is the best batsman in the world at the moment.

"It is the first time in Indian cricket history that youā€™ve got a captain and a senior player who is really a fitness fanatic and whatā€™s happened is that the other players in the team have followed that lead and what has transpired is youā€™ve got a very fit Indian cricket team. Youā€™ve always had really good fitness trainers in the Indian teamā€¦ now for the first time you have someone from inside in the leadership position who is driving it. So, there is so much more natural bind," Upton added.Ā 

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