South Africa are the standout team: James Faulkner

According to Australian all-rounder James Faulkner, South Africa would be the standout team in the upcoming 2015 Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The 24-year-old believes that the Proteas have an extremely balanced side and if they bring their best out, it won't be easy to beat them.

“I think South Africa will be very good in Australia. Obviously they had the opportunity to play five games against us just recently and if they bring their A-game, they will be very hard to beat. With their batting and bowling line-up, they’re probably the standout I reckon,” Faulkner said in an interview to icc-cricket.com.

“Grew up watching Ponting, Hayden and Symonds”

Faulkner noted down two games, first the opening contest versus England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and second, the fixture against Australia’s Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand at the WACA in Perth as the matches that he was looking forward to at the mega event.

“I think the first game against England will be very big at the home of cricket, the MCG. I’d expect a pretty full house, but I think they’re all going to be pretty big. I know we play New Zealand over there so that’s going to be a pretty big game as well,” he said.

When he was asked, as to who were the best One-Day International(ODI) players that he had seen, he replied that the likes of Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds were the batsman he grew up admiring.

“I think there’re a lot of big players, Ricky Ponting, Matt Hayden were quality, and Andrew Symonds was a very good one-day player. I know I’ve missed a heap of players as well, but back when I was growing up they were the players I used to love watching,” he said.