Just like any other tournament, ICC CWC19 has India in its hot favorite list.
England are unarguably the overwhelming favorites for this edition considering their unbelievable run at home in the last few years, but apart from them, no other team on paper is as strong and balanced as India. They have two batsmen and three bowlers featuring at the top 10 in ICC rankings. They have an overall win percentage of 65.12 in ODIs since CWC15, and away from home, it goes up to 69.23%. The men in blue have all the basics covered and must be rearing to lift the trophy for the third time in their history. However, they have mixed experience in England in recent times. They went all the way to the Final of the Champions Trophy but could not cross the finishing line; furthermore, they lost a bilateral series last year against England as well. But make no mistake; India will come hard at the opposition to turn the tables this time round.
Team India’s strength is their formidable top three with the likes of Rohit Sharma, Shekhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli. Since CWC15, all three of them have played more than 65 matches and scored runs at an average of more than 45 (R. Sharma: 61.12, S. Dhawan: 45.20, and V. Kohli: 78.29), that too with a strike rate in excess of 95. Unless the opposition manages to make the best use of new balls, these three can take the game away any day of the week.
On many scenarios, your strength can also be your weakness and that’s the case for India. If their top three gets going, their middle order is better than anything. However, if India finds themselves in a situation like 50-3, there will be a massive question mark hovering on their middle order which is too much dependent on MS Dhoni for such situations. Moreover, a long tail comprising of four bowlers with no substantial batting capability is not helping them either. It will be interesting to see whether India’s top order plays conservatively considering their shaky middle order and long tail or they opt to play Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Ravindra Jadeja at number 8 discounting one of their front-line bowling options.
The Captain Fearless has to lead from the front if India has to win the World Cup. The number one batsman in the world too must be ready to accept the challenge and get over the line. Since CWC15, Kohli have scored 4306 runs in 69 matches at an average of 78.29 with a strike rate shade over 98. As astonishing as it sounds, his fifties to hundreds conversion rate in that period has been in excess of fifty percent (16 fifties and 19 hundreds). India will be expecting similar performances from their skipper.
As this World Cup is expected to be high a scoring one to begin with, picking up wickets in the middle overs (11-40) will be crucial to curtail the flow of runs in that period as well as to minimize the damage of the slog over onslaught. As a result, leg-spinners are supposed to have a big role to play. While almost all the teams have none or one at their disposal, India is blessed with two genuine leg-spinners in the forms of Chahal and Kuldeep. Since CWC15, they have played more than 40 matches, picked up in excess of 40 wickets each at a strike rate of less than 30 and an economy rate of under 5 runs per over. India’s chances in winning the World Cup rest highly on these two.
Team India has several players playing their first world cup. Among them, Hardik Pandya has the potential to steal the show from the big boys. His invaluable power hitting ability in the slog overs to finish games in addition to his athleticism in the field as well as his canniness with the ball makes him a great asset in this Indian side.
To be honest, there is hardly any reason for India to not qualify for the Semis. In fact, they are one of the contenders to finish at the top two in the group stage and go all the way through to win the World Cup.