Kohli and compatriots attend ICC Champions Trophy 2017 opening dinner

The first match of ICC Champions Trophy between England and Bangladesh begins at 1500 hrs IST (09.30 GMT).

Playing as an occasional wicket keeper for the South African cricket team, de Villiers is commonly considered as one of the best fielders in present day global cricket.

India’s successful campaign in ICC World Cup was largely due to some great bowling and fielding. India have a world-class team.

South Africa won the tournament.

“I believe that all the distractions will be kept aside when the team walks on to the park”.

Semifinalists: India and South Africa (yes, yes it’s predictable, but these two teams do look likely to go through). They are also in the tougher first-round group alongside England, Australia and New Zealand. Can they beat England? I’ve always had slight doubts over England at the end of a match and their death bowling but it’s certainly an area in which they are showing improvement.

The Men in Blued then skittled out Bangladesh for a paltry 84 in only 23.5 overs, thus winning the game by a huge margin of 240 runs.

Karthik replaced injured Manish Pandey from the original squad and amid the presence of star keeper MS Dhoni, his chances of making in playing 11 are slim.

Indian opener Virender Sehwag was the highest run-scorer of the tournament with a score of 271 runs.

Solutions from Intel that will be utilised during the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 are a drone, profiling the bat swing and bringing a cricket VR experience to the fans at the stadiums.

England have experienced a huge upturn in their results for over a year and Jason Roy remains a match victor at the top of the order. His wickets tally may not show the actual impact he can have on the match. England now play without fear.

Pakistan’s LOI team hasn’t tasted much success in the past 18 months.

England face Bangladesh in the opening Champions Trophy group game on Thursday before meeting New Zealand and Australia. “The match will be played before a packed Birmingham house, but I am confident if we play to our potential we will definitely go on to win the game”, he said.

South Africa are South Africa and will reach the semifinals before pressing the choke button.

The reason I’ve dwelt on the bowling is because that’s what matters more when playing overseas. He scored three consecutive ODI centuries against West Indies and backed it up with a 90 in the test. India won by nine wickets, with 31.3 overs to spare.

The full schedule for the tournament can be found here.

Whilst the favourites tag is worthy, ( Morgan’s men have performed well everywhere and even in India) any team can have a poor day with the bat, the ball, spill some ugly catches, or dramatically stumble on a pitch that offers movement as was witnessed at Lord’s on Monday. This will hold New Zealand in good stead as the format of the Champions Trophy is such that a victor may be decided on the thinnest of margins.

Fourth in the One-Day International rankings, New Zealand’s performance in 50-over cricket this year reflects that it has done well, but is not the finished product yet. He is without a doubt one of the most improved bowlers in world cricket over the past year. From Group A, England and Sri Lanka both secured 2 wins each and moved on to the Semi-Finals.

“South Africa have a world-class team”. He has played 15 matches so far, scoring 326 runs at an average of 25.07.

He applauded the efforts of opener Shikhar Dhawan and Dinesh Karthik. Also, 3 Indian bowlers made it onto the list of top 6 bowlers, Ravindra Jadeja with 112 wickets, Ishant Sharma with 10 wickets and Ravichandran Ashwin with 8 wickets.

Champions Trophy 2017, is just around the corner and the most awaited match, India vs. Pakistan, is on 4 June.