India, Australia, England or Pakistan? Jos Buttler picks his favourites for T20 World Cup

England captain Jos Buttler has revealed the name of the team he thinks could win the upcoming edition of the T20 World Cup in Australia. While speaking at the pre-tournament press conference, Buttler picked defending champions Australia as favourites to win the marquee ICC event. The England skipper believes that Australia will have an advantage over other teams because the tournament is being held in their country. 

"T20 is one of those games that can be unpredictable, but I think history tells you that, generally, the host nation are slight favourites in big tournaments. Many of us have travelled and played in Australia and know the conditions, but of course no-one is going to know the conditions or be as accustomed to them as the Australian team. They are also reigning champions, so you have to pick them out probably as favourites for the tournaments," Buttler said.

England recently defeated Australia in their three-match T20I series by 2-0. Earlier, Australia went down 2-1 against India in a bilateral T20I series played away from home. Australia still has a few things to figure out before they head into the upcoming T20 World Cup, including their opening pair. Australia has two warm-up games scheduled before they officially kickstart their World Cup campaign and the Aaron Finch-led side will look to address all their concerns in those matches. 

Australia's squad for T20 World Cup: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.

T20 World Cup 2022

Meanwhile, India, England, and Pakistan are also favourites going into the T20 World Cup. While India are the world's No. 1 ranked T20I side at the moment, England and Pakistan are in good form when it comes to the shortest format of the game. India and Pakistan are in the same group for the main event of the tournament, whereas England are in Group A with Australia, Afghanistan, and New Zealand.

The T20 World Cup is scheduled to begin with the qualifier round on October 16. India are slated to kickstart their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 23. 

Image: AP