A savagely versatile batting consortium makes South Africa a frontrunner to raise the golden cup to the skies, even if their patchy recent form suggests otherwise. From head to the lower limbs, they boast unabashed hitters of the leather ball, who could dismember most bowling attacks in the world.
The headsman of violence is Heinrich Klaassen, mild of manners but a riot of rage with the bat. He enters the tournament with a wounded heart, the near-miss in the T20 World Cup final still haunting him, which makes him a deadlier force. Nothing rattles him, forthright speed or devilish swing or ripping spin, green-tops or turners, making one of the most feared hitters in the game. What makes him elite is the ability to cut the spinners to ribbons in the middle overs. In Asia, he averages 42.29 and maintains a strike rate of 124. He has strummed warning notes with four 80-plus scores in the last four games. Process the strike rates—88, 131, 188, 155. He is one of the most brutal hitters at the death overs too.
If Klaassen is South Africa’s batting general, the trusted lieutenants feature David Miller, an equally ferocious hitter, a rejuvenated Temba Bavuma and a recalibrated Aiden Markram. The young cavalry comprises the buccaneering Tony de Zorzi (strike rate of 95), Tristan Stubbs, Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder. Down the order, Marco Jansen could unlock his long levers to furnish South Africa death-over impetus. Corbin Bosch is relatively unknown, but he is reputed for his big strokes down the order.
Under coach Rob Walter, they have adopted a refreshingly bravado batting approach. Even the hitherto conservative Markram and Bavuma have reeled off progressive knocks, thus making them one of the most entertaining teams of the 2023 World Cup, until India stopped them in the semifinals.
Complementing the hitmen-brigade is a balanced and diverse firm of bowlers. Two left-arm front-line spinners, a wrist spinner and an orthodox counterpart, a bunch of part-time tweakers, a thoroughbred seam artist, a beanpole left-arm seam merchant, a pair of new-age utility bowlers, at least two genuine seam-bowling all-rounders they have covered most bases. But bowlers have been horribly inconsistent, a reason they have lost the last six of their ODIs, including defeats to Ireland. The counterargument is that most of their regular bowlers were injured—Anrich Nortje is still recovering and would miss the tournament—and it’s just the matter of a game to get their act together.
The low-key build-up would suit them, as was the case in the 2023 ODI World Cup and the 2024 T20 instalment. They would rather enter the tournament without any hype and punch above the weight rather than self-immolate as favourites. It would soothe their nerves that the only ICC tournament they have won is the Champions Trophy, even if that was the inaugural edition in 1998. The short nature of the tournament—five wins would seal the deal—suits the team prone to misfortune and moments of madness in the past.
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Australia: The weakest Australian bowling attack of the century
The defending world champions Australia are not habitually dependent on the form and fitness of a few luminaries. But this Champions Trophy, the capacity to reclaim the trophy they last hoisted in 2009 will rest on the replacements for some of the big guns missing the edition due to injuries and personal reasons. The ultimate tournament, it’s the event they have bizarrely underwhelmed—damningly they have not won a single game since the victory in the 2009 final.
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Five of the eleven that muted the multitude that attended the final in Ahmedabad are absent. The inspirational captain Pat Cummins and line-and-length metronome Josh Hazlewood and all-rounder Mitchell Marsh are injured; Marcus Stoinis has made a shock farewell while Mitchell Starc, the new-ball wrecker, has opted out due to personal reasons. The casualty list has depleted bowling and balance, more than their batting dimension, making the squad the weakest and most unbalanced the serial champions had ever named in a major tournament this century.
Steve Smith would step into Cummins’s shoes—he is as charismatic and perhaps more ingenious. Glenn Maxwell, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Alex Carey, Marnus Labuschagne infuse knowhow, cool and ammo. But the bowling is woefully thin on experience. Some names carry promise, more than dread. Nathan Ellis is a reservoir of variations, has immense IPL experience and familiarity with the subcontinent conditions, but has featured in only nine ODIs. Similarly, Spencer Johnson has the physical traits of Starc, tall and strapping with a bristling action. He could crank up hostile pace, can bend the ball both ways, could extract discomfiting bounce, more than Starc perhaps, but has a fragile body and a thin body of work (3 ODIs and 11 list A games).
The most experienced among the lot is Sean Abbott, but his figures don’t provoke excitement either (33 wickets at 37 in 28 games). Even the most optimistic and patriotic Australian fans would hesitate to gamble on this medium-pace pack to script a tournament triumph. There is definitely a novelty of the unknown, but it looks like a dent too large to fill. The biggest bowling hope, thus, remains the leg-spinner Adam Zampa. His accomplice is leg-spinner Tanveer Sangha, who is more of the orthodox kind. But his haul of two wickets in three games, an economy rate nudging seven, inspire less confidence than part-timers Maxwell and Head.
The pair would have to enjoy stellar tournaments, both with bat and ball. if Australia are to go deep into the tournament, leave alone holding the trophy. Explosive batting is their biggest and sole succour in a tournament where they check in as world champions but would not be an outright favourite. Even with their capacity to grit their way through a tournament, this time even a last-four spot would be an overreach.
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New Zealand: Sum of the part-time spinners
The two titans of seam bowling, Trent Boult and Tim Southee, has farewelled. The brightest young hope, Ben Sears, injured himself a week before the tournament. The batting totem Kane Williamson is ageing, though he presaged his twinkling form with a stylish hundred against South Africa in Lahore. But their USP this tournament is the ensemble cast of part-time spinners, who could lay the foundation of a tournament triumph.
None of Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner and Michael
Bracewell blaze an aura. Except Rachin, a genuinely high-grade batsmen, others are utility men, a stock the Kiwis had seldom felt any shortage, though most of them were of the medium-pace variants. Batsmen wouldn’t bother poring through their video tapes. But they possess an uncanny knack to sting, and offer diverse characteristics.
The understated Santner spearheads them. Also the captain, he has added more layers to his bowling. He is better at controlling his pace, plays around with his release point, manipulates the depth and width of the crease. A shrewd reader of the batsman’s mind, he masterfully sets them up. The economy rate of 4.28 conveys the stifling nature of his bowling. He has emerged a quiet leader of the team, in the absence of Southee and Boult. He handles his spin bunch smartly. Rachin, flatter than Santner, is employed as a partnership breaker, especially against right-handed batsmen. He restricts to burst and does not over-use, as his lack of variations could make him fodder for quality batsmen. With his height, he purchases bounce too—the odd ball suddenly kicks up. He could become a more dangerous bowler when the surface begins to wear as the tournament progresses.
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Phillips too has humble gifts, but like Santner is perseverant and can chime in with the odd crucial wicket. He is quicker through the air, hardly gives width for batsmen and possess a skidder that he undercuts that catches batsmen off-guard. Bracewell is a chip off the old block, bowls more conventional off-spin but with immaculate control, as his economy rate of 5.02 denotes. All three could wield the long handle to devastating effect too, providing a coveted balance to the playing eleven. Rachin, of course, is their batting bulwark in Asian climes.
The unusual spin quartet compensates for the lack of X factor in the pace-bowling stream. There are familiar and seasoned names such as Matt Henry and Lockie Ferguson, apart from the lanky Will O’Rourke, but the part-time form the real wealth of this side.
The three teams were the semi-finalists of the 2023 ODI world cup, apart from India. South Africa have hitmen-brigade of batsmen and diverse bowlers, New Zealand have a devilish mix of part-timers suited to conditions, but Australia will find it tough to even reach the semi-finals.
If the feeling persisted that the team for the World Cup was slightly over the hill, this batch revels in its utilitarianism. Don’t call them underrated though, because everyone calls them that.
