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Squad: Rohit Sharma ©, Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.

For the last three tournaments on the trot, the World Cup has been lifted by a host nation, and it would be a brave man who bet against that becoming four in four come November. It's not just that the subcontinent is such a fortress - after all, 1987 and 1996 demonstrated that even India can crumble under the harsh glare of home expectations - it's the wealth of white-ball talent at their disposal too. Rohit Sharma averaged a century every other match in 2019 - had India made the final, it's probable he'd have toppled Tendulkar's scoring record for the tournament - while Virat Kohli managed to surpass Sourav Ganguly's career World Cup haul and now stands second only to Sachin. Mohammed Shami is in with a chance of becoming India's greatest World Cup wicket-taker in this edition (14 more will do the job), while Jasprit Bumrah remains the most feared yorker-merchant on the circuit when he can stay fit.

Indeed, if there is an Achilles heel to this Indian side then fitness and form are the likely candidates, though any country which can replace an injured Axar Patel with the likes of Ravi Ashwin is hardly struggling for strength in depth. In the last month they've been beaten on home soil by Australia and Bangladesh, with Rohit copping a rare duck in the latter, but the Asia Cup final was a historic steamrollering of Sri Lanka, and there have been centuries galore for the various rotating top order batsmen so far this autumn. Sharma looks to have injected his side with the Eoin Morgan spirit going into the tournament; whether he can maintain it if things start to get hairy is another matter.

An opening encounter with Australia in Chennai should be a mouth-watering tussle, though it pales beside the real duck-and-cover stuff when Ahmedabad hosts the first ODI versus Pakistan on Indian soil in over a decade.  Pakistan are, of course, the one opposition devoid of IPL experience in their squad, but for other countries it could be the kind of boon that was missing in 2011. Because if a team other than India are crowned as world champions six weeks from now, then they'll more than likely have taken on the would-be kings in their own backyard and come out on top.

Highest World Cup total: 413-5 vs Bermuda (Port of Spain, 2007)
Lowest World Cup total: 125 vs Australia (Centurion, 2003)
Highest World Cup innings: 183, Sourav Ganguly vs Sri Lanka (Taunton, 1999)
Best World Cup bowling figures: 6-23, Ashish Nehra vs England (Durban, 2003)
Leading World Cup run-scorer: Sachin Tendulkar, 2,278 runs
Leading World Cup wicket-taker: Javagal Srinath & Zaheer Khan, 44 wickets


Tournament Schedule: Australia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, New Zealand, England, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Netherlands