This is the first world cup that Australia didn’t come with a clear favorite. Yet Ricky Ponting‘s squad has enough weapons to blow Zimbabwe out and make a very confident start.The team will obviously take inspiration from their world cup performance.Moreover Zimbabwe is not a strong opponent to them.They are still one of the best ODI squads.They have proved it picking a 6-1 win over England though they lost the Ashes series just before the ODI series to England.They also have a record of winning 23 consecutive world cup matches since 1999. They defeated South Africa by 7 wickets in the warm up match though lost to India by 38 runs.
But the Zimbabwe team is some what different than the team Australia defeated in 3-0 in 2004 though some of the players of that team will play.The team will be spirited from the memory of two wins against Australia in T20 World Cup 2007 and in a warm up match in T20 world Cup 2010 and also from the memory of the famous win in 1983 at Trent Bridge.Moreover Zimbabwe have a set of emerging stars in their team. So if Australia doesn’t play their best Zimbabwe can make the match very competitive.
The match will be held in Ahmedabad and Start at 14:30 local time (09:00 GMT)
SOURCE: ESPN CRICINFO