World Cup Team Preview: India

*India’:*Strengths’: The fact that they will be playing at home will be a huge booster for a side which is ranked number two in the world. They will look to ensure that they do much better than what they had done on the previous two occasions that they were the co-hosts of the World Cup – in 1987 and 1996. On both occasions they had been ousted in the semi-finals of the tournament. >

However, this time around, with the kind of batting that the side has, it will be difficult to put them off and with the ICC having brought about a rule that will allow India to play all their round-robin games – except against Bangladesh – and their knock-out matches at home, it would be a team to watch out for.

Weakness: As a number two team on the ascent, there is no real weakness but the bowling could definitely be looked in. Zaheer Khan will be a player to watch out but for the rest, not too much can be said. The Indians do not have bowlers who can run through the opposition and that may be the cause of some problem. Their bowling at the death needs to show a lot of improvement.

Players to watch out for: While there is a list of batsmen from India to watch out for, one gets the sense that the side will look up to the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir to deliver the goods.

Matches against: Bangladesh at Mirpur, England at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, Ireland at Bangalore, Netherlands at Delhi, South Africa at Nagpur, West Indies at Chennai.