Former Australian batter and current Melbourne Stars coach David Hussey has termed Pakistan as the competition's favourites ahead of their semifinal clash against Australia.
Pakistan, which remains the only unbeaten side in the competition, has delivered strong performances in their run to the semifinal including a 10-wicket mulling of pre-tournament favourite, India.
"Pakistan are going to be the favourites of the competition, they're chock full of talent with the bat, Babar Azam, [Mohammad] Rizwan the wicketkeeper-batsman, Mohammad Hafeez is still doing it, [and] Shoaib Malik," said David Hussey in an interview with abc.net.
Hussey, who has seen Haris Rauf upfront from his time at Melbourne Stars, said that Australia will need to be aware of all the threats the Pakistani bowling unit poses.
"With the ball, they're very evenly balanced with left arm [paceman] Shaheen Afridi and Melbourne Stars' own Haris Rauf and they've got some good spin as well. The way they've played throughout the tournament, they're just class all over the park really," he added.
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Drawing a comparison with Australia's very own, Hussey said that Shaheen Afridi and Mitchell Starc are very similar in their approach and both are terrific bowlers.
"He [Shaheen Afridi] is an absolute superstar of a bowler, not dissimilar to when Mitchell Starc first started out playing for Australia, [he] bowls express, can bowl around the wicket, good yorkers, good bouncer, slow ball, he's at the peak of his powers at the moment. If Australia are to go on and beat Pakistan they'll have to play Shaheen Afridi very, very well," Hussey elaborated.
Hussey claimed that Australia cannot be undermined either because they have always remained worthy opponents in the World Cups.
"It's going to be rather difficult but don't discount Australia, they've got talent all the way through and if they keep playing with no fear and lots of intensity with the bat, I think they can take any team down throughout the world," he concluded.