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England is poised as one of the biggest candidates to bring home the trophy during this year’s Cricket World Cup.

As England is hosting the tournament, the home team should receive great support during matches. The 10-team competition includes the defending champions Australia as well as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies. The cup will be played across 11 different venues in England and in Wales, with the top four teams proceeding to the semi-finals, culminating with the final taking place at Lord’s on July 14. If you want to add extra excitement to the World Cup then we recommend you to look up a bookmaker for great odds and betting opportunities as well as promo codes and bonus codes!

Eoin Morgan led the English team in the 2015 World Cup which took place in Australia and which unfortunately resulted in England being knocked out of the initial round. The team has since then spent time developing their play, now being placed as favourites to win the World Cup in 2019. This is largely due to a powerful batting line-up, a record high made by a team in an ODI which has already been broken twice. There is definitely a reason why the team is a clear favorite.

Eoin Morgan himself says that "The level of performances that we've produced, particularly at home over the last two years in particular, probably lends itself to us being favorites”. In 1999, when the World Cup was held in England the team were knocked out during the first round. Eoin Morgan notes that "We got knocked out early in 1999, but I still remember it like it was yesterday” showing that there is a need to prove that England is still a contender to the World Cup titles.

The above also lends to speculation that the game is becoming increasingly popular in England. Organisers have reported that 95%+ of all tickets available are almost sold. Some believe that up to a quarter of the tickets are held by new fans. Out of the 800,000 tickets up for sale, more than 250.000 were purchased by the South East Asian fan-bases.      

Who might be able to stop England?

The current 10-team competition is one of the smallest competitions since 1992 when only 9 teams played during the World Cup. The decision to move from a 14-team tournament to a 10-year tournament was by many cricket fans heavily critiqued, especially from smaller nations who are no longer eligible to start in the competition. Both Ireland and Scotland did not qualify for this year’s World Cup.

The biggest contender in this small tournament is Australia which has managed to win four of the five last World Cups. Steve Smith and David Warner have returned to Australian cricket after being banned for ball-tampering. Another clear contender is India which is currently ranked  second-best team in the world, sporting Virat Kohli, their captain who by many is regarded as the greatest one-day batman of all time.