Cricket: India among favourites as 13th men’s ODI World Cup begins today in Ahmedabad
But, there are many ways of looking at this. The most obvious is the cricketing one. There’s a good chance the trophy will actually stay in India.
The team has been a bit over the place in the last two years, with plenty of chopping and changing in bilateral events.
But, just in time for the mega event, the jigsaw has come together.
Save for Rishabh Pant, who endured a horrific car crash and Axar Patel, whose quadriceps gave way at the most inopportune moment, India have all the personnel they would have hoped for.
But, while India are strong, they are by no means the strongest. That mantle will have to fall upon England. No team has understood modern white-ball cricket as well as England.
They have serious firepower in batting and bowling and on any day will stock their eleven with more power- hitting options and allrounders than anyone else.
They play freely and fearlessly, and you should expect them to put up some monstrous scores in the course of the tournament.
Australia are only one step behind England and they have the added advantage of being a team that knows just how to lift in multi-team tournaments. You can talk about the lead-up to an event, but once the first ball is bowled you will see first-hand how switched on Australia are and how well they manage their campaign.
After these three teams, there’s a bit of daylight before the others step in because each is flawed in one way or another. Pakistan has red-hot bowling but their batting is brittle and heavily dependent on Babar Azam.
