Team India: Analysis and Odds for ICC World Cup’11

India (Group B)

Group Rivals :-	South Africa, England, West indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands
Coach :-	Gary Kirsten
Captain :-	Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Best Performance in WC :-	Champions 1983
Highest Score in WC :-	413-5 (50 Overs) v/s Bermuda in WC’07
Lowest Score in WC :-	125 All Out (41.4 Overs) v/s Australia in WC’03
Best Individual Score :-	183, Sourav Ganguly v/s Sri Lanka in WC’99
Best Bowling :-	6-23 Ashish Nehra v/s England in WC’03
Matches Won/Lost/Tied/NR	32-25-0-1
The Odds :-	2000-1
ICC ODI Ranking :-	No.2

MAN TO WATCH Sachin TENDULKAR Sachin Tendulkar is known as ‘God of Cricket’ in World. He is the lone double century maker in the ODIs which he scored against South Africa last year at Gwalior. Off-late Sachin Tendulkar is in great form and batting at his best. He is India’s biggest match-winner. He holds the record of most centuries and most runs in ODIs. He has 47 centuries under his belt and more than 17000 runs in his account which is world record in itself. Infact man itself is one kind of record. He is world’s  most capped player and playing international cricket for more than 2 decades. All of India’s hope in this World Cup depends on his performance. This is considered to be his last world Cup and he is desperate to win this World Cup. He is also highest run-getter in World Cup with more than 1600 runs in previous five editions with staggering average of 58. In this World Cup he will also equals the record of Javed Miandad of playing in six World Cups. Being his last World Cup he is hoping to leave international cricket on high with World Cup victory. Career-best performance: Batting: 200* v/s South Africa at  Gwalior  in 2010 Bowling: 32-5 v/s Australia at Kochi in 1998

Team India is considered most favorite to win this edition of the Cricket World Cup. It is irony that nation which is crazy after cricket and consider cricket as religion has achieved only single World Champion title so far and that too 28 years ago. After that India played in semi-finals in 1987 and 1996 but failed to reach the finals on both occasions. There best chance came in 2003 World Cup where they reached finals but lost to Australia and thirst for another World Cup victory increased among cricket lovers of this country. In 2007 World India failed poorly as they thrown out of the tournament after first round where they lost to minnows Bangladesh. This time experts and cricket pundits are rating Indian team highly. India have the team which can win the World Cup but they often becomes complacent after achieving small feats. They have best batting line-up compare to all the other teams playing in the World Cup. Known conditions, pitches  and home-crowd also goes in their favour. So from all the aspects they look favorites. Indan team also have certain injury problems as Sehwag is not fully fit. Pace bowler Praveen Kumar is already out of the tournament due to injury and some other players also carrying small niggles. So India is also vulnerable though they are best team on the paper. Captain MS Dhoni have to play his natural game just like Kapil Dev played in 1983 World Cup. India have best chance of winning the World Cup this time  as they are playing at home but they will be under-pressure due to high expectations by their fans and it is not easy to perform well under such pressure and in front of large crowds.

Personally I believe India will not going to win this World Cup. I will be surprise if they reach the semi-finals.

Key Players for India:  Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh