Fortune favours the ‘Blue’

Over the last four weeks every now and then, each time India took the field, chants of ‘Vande Mataram' and ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai' were fairly common to eardrums. These chants were most often celebratory, and sometimes stray and exhortative when the crowd sensed that India were lagging a tad behind and trying to play catch-up with its opponents.

The Men in Blue are carrying the passionate support, but also the expectations, of more than a billion people. As the knockouts draw closer, they could be losing their sleep over the gargantuan pressure that a home World Cup brings. More so, because, they are yet to win a World Cup since 2011, as were vanquished in the semi-finals in each of the past two editions and also thwarted in the Twenty20 World Cup.

To win, India needs its formidable batters to come through - whether it be a supercharged Virat Kohli, or the charismatic Rohit Sharma, playing with the added incentive of a do-or-die battle in his cherished home city, Mumbai - and its bowlers, particularly smart veteran pacemen Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah, to play to their limits, and perhaps then some.

Besides, pitch conditions have been more than friendly to Indian batsmen thus far, and if it came down to chasing totals, opponents could manage little to avoid the distraction, fearing India's pinpoint consistency with the willow. Under these circumstances, the side has been mostly banking on chase master Kohli, who is breathing down Tendulkar's neck with as many as 48 ODI centuries, and is one hundred away to get past that mark.

Moreover, the 6-0 record is no mean feat, for the Blue Army have been, more often than not, able to extract the very most out of their collective talents - batting, bowling, fielding. If anything, India boasts of a stronger squad to call upon than 2019, given the emergence of Shubman Gill to help Rohit and others compile big scores in the first 20 overs. Especially with Indian conditions being ideally suited to the team's bevy of dominant batsmen, coach Rahul Dravid has come to place more onus on the top and middle-order to dig in and keep the runs ticking over at a steady rate.

A deep and varied Indian squad with the likes of Gill, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Hardik Pandya, headlined by hitman Rohit and the hostile Kohli, India's top-order line-up is just as formidable as it gets. With the side rolling out its best crop of players, fans could be in for a relentless run-feast on flat batting decks with no signs of slowing down, as the tournament assumes a more critical stage in the coming weeks.

Also read: ICC World Cup 2023: Shami's not done yet!

But if India is not crowned the champions, who will be?

Australia has won four times in the last six World Cups and never readily gives up a prize. This was most evident by how they pulled off a miraculous comeback in the tournament on the back of some very embarrassing defeats. Skipper Pat Cummins, a man of determination even by Australian standards, is desperate to prove he has a future as well as a wonderful past as both leader and player. But Australia's beguiling unpredictability on the ground and the margin of its previous defears are probably at the point in a once-dominant team's cycle where its reputation inspires rather than intimidates rivals.

The team that really is overdue for success on the big stage is South Africa. The rankings say there are three Proteas in the world's top 10 in batting (ODIs), with Quinton de Kock and Heinrich Klassen way out ahead of India's batting mainstay, Kohli. The team has quality, balance and variety, including an intriguing newcomer in Indian-origin spin specialist Keshav Maharaj. It also has a reputation for choking on big days, hopefully, they will overcome their miserable record in ICC tournaments and battle their way through the final.

Pakistan will be - who knows ? This is, at once, the joy and the frustration of it. Bangladesh looks weary and battered, Sri Lanka as ever has guts and smarts but probably not enough firepower and England has fallen below Bangladesh in the rankings.

If there is anyone for whom this competition matters as much as India, it's Afghanistan. They are a better team now, as much as on paper as they are on the field, and have the pool stage incentive of a possible entry into the knockouts.