By ICF Staff
February 15 2011

This is a World Cup without favorites, for although India is considered the smart bet on their home turf, there are at least 4 nations capable of grabbing the trophy.

Australia is a weak imitation of its former self, even though Ricky Ponting as captain has never lost a World Cup match. The defending champions cannot be counted out, and they are coming off a decisive ODI series victory over England at home, but competing in India is a different story.

They have already lost warmup matches to both India and South Africa, and the last time they visited India, which wasn't too long back, they were swept in ODIs (and Tests).

South Africa have a strong pace attack but Indian pitches were never made for the pacemen. And the perennial chokers have never come close to winning a World Cup.

England is not strong at the ODI format, as their pummeling at the hands of Australia following a convincing Test series win shows. However, they have a top-notch spinner and aggressive batsmen.

Pakistan's performance in such a major series will unfortunately always be suspect. Three of their players have just been banned for fixing, but it remains to be seen if the rest of their team have learned the lesson. If the payoff is big enough, who knows? ICC will probably be following their activities keenly.

Sri Lanka is always a dark horse, and capable of winning it all.

India, though, inevitably remains the favorite. They have a class batting lineup, a superb pace attack, a skillful spin duo, and a shrewd and successful captain. Sachin Tendulkar is playing his last World Cup, and although he has played a total of two ODIs in the last year he would like nothing better than to help India get its second World Cup.

Virender Sehwag,Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan and Mahendra Dhoni are all dangerous, all capable of winning a match on their own.

Zaheer is a great paceman, Sreesanth a genuine and complete fast bowler. Munaf Patel shone in South Africa, and Harbhajan Singh is always threatening in ODIs. Even wild card Piyush Chawla was brilliant in the warmup match against the Aussies. Fielding is as good as it can get in an Indian side.

It's the best opportunity for India to win, and huge home crowds will be cheering them all the way.

2011 World Cup preview

Discussion started by Indian Cricket Fever (IP Logged), 15/02/2011 22:39

Indian Cricket Fever
15/02/2011 22:39

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Max
16/02/2011 18:59

I believe that this is a very open World Cup. The knockout format of the 2nd stage especially makes it difficult to predict a winner. The group stage though seems to dragged out and will be boring.

India - World Cup winners 2011!!!
Champions Trophy winners 2013!!!
Congrats to Indian team and all Indian fans!

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Birbal
16/02/2011 23:02

I always enjoy even the supposedly one sided games... i.e. Namibia v. Australia etc... for couple of reasons... one is the "fantasy" aspect of a bunch of amatuers taking on the pros... one can easily put one's self in the place of the minnows...and the other is the chance of an upset a la Ireland and Pakistan last time...

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Birbal
31/03/2011 01:14

Aus and SA failed to make the semis...but India and Sri Lanka did...

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