EXCLUSIVE: Conditions key to World Cup victory, says Monty Panesar

England one of the favourties

England are justifiably one of the favourites as they have every area covered. They have good fast bowlers, world class spinners and match winning batsmen, such as Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and Jos Buttler.

However, when the conditions suit both teams I think England will face some close nail biting games, as they did against Pakistan. It just shows when the sun is out in England Pakistan turn up and play their best cricket.

I was at the Pakistan v West Indies match and that match was one sided. Whoever won the toss was going to take advantage of the overcast conditions and the friendly green pitch.

The conditions meant West indies were always going to bowl out Pakistan very cheaply. Games like these are not good for the World Cup they should try and avoid green pitches it just favours the bowling team.

I wasn't surprised by Pakistan being poor against West indies it was all about the who won the toss. What surprised me the shot selection by Pakistan batsmen. When the pitches are green you can see the Pakistan batsmen don’t fancy hanging around. They played aggressive shots and quickly gave up against a strong West indies bowling line up.

However, they proved against England that they will be a dangerous team when pitches are good for batting and their isn’t much pace and bounce.

West Indies dark horses

West Indies are the dark horses . They have match winners in Chris Gayle and Andre Russell. They have strong fast bowlers and athletic wicket keeper in Shai Hope who gives a good opening batting option with Chris Gayle. The only concern is they don’t have a front line spinner how would they cope in a pitch that is turning.

Opening matches reflection

Sri lanka v New Zealand

The match was played on a green pitch and the sub continent teams are going to struggle on green pitches. They are not use to playing white ball cricket on steaming conditions the result was pretty obvious New Zealand were going to win. New Zealand were ruthless and they look like a team that could make it to the semi-finals.

Sri Lanka look a very weak team, since they hold their internal politics in cricket it does effect the national team. I think they wont challenge the stronger teams.

Bangladesh v South Africa

I was very surprised Bangladesh set a total over 300 and beat South Africa. Bangladesh need to play like this every game to stay competitive and win against teams that are going to be harder especially likes of India, Australia, and Pakistan. I cant see Bangladesh sustain this kind of performance throughout the tournament. They have two big games at Lords and they will be praying for a flat pitch then they got a chance to win games there.

South Africa can’t seem to get rid of the ‘chokers’ tag and they, worryingly for South Africa fans, look short both in the batting and bowling departments. It’s a long road back for them now to make it to the latter stages of the tournament.

 Read Monty Panesar's column every week on Easterneye.biz and the Eastern Eye newspaper.