Is India really a favorite for the World Cup 2023?

  ICC ODI World Cup is after 4 years. We have seen that the home side has been dominating the mega event so far. In 2011 India won the World Cup, in 2015 Australia got the trophy at its home ground and then in 2019, England got its hands on the trophy for the 1st time. Now, this World Cup is India and people are saying that India is the favorite to win this World Cup. We will talk in detail about this and will get the answer. 

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Is India really a favorite for the World Cup 2023?

Tumbling Top Order

This has been the discussion that the Indian Top Order collapsed at really important moments. India won the last ICC event in 2013 under the leadership of MS Dhoni afterward they came so close but couldn't finish on the right side. In the 2015 World Cup, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli went early and that dented the chances of chasing the huge total hence they were out of the World Cup in Semi-final.

In 2019 same story happened again There wasn't a big total to chase but the Indian top order collapsed against swing and seam. We have seen in the recent series against Australia where Mitchell Starc got through their lineup twice in 3 matches. This is a really worrying sign for Team India. Because if your top order falls early then there is serious pressure on the middle order which can lead to further collapse. Indian top-order players always used to play long innings but it's not happening nowadays. Rohit Sharma has gotten 3 double-hundreds but now he is struggling to play 3 figure innings. Virat Kohli has scored 3 hundred in recent times but he is still not in his groove and that is leaving a big hole in the Indian Team. Because these 2 are the main pillars of the Indian batting lineup.

One Dimensional Middle Order

Surya, Pandya, and KL Rahul are holding the middle order nowadays which are pure T20 batters. Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant are out of the action due to injuries and that has left a big hole in the middle order. They all can play aggressive shots and attacking cricket but they struggled in building the innings. Yes, there is no doubt in their abilities but every player has a different skill set. Their game against spinners is very limited because they don't like to play innovative shots, especially Rahul and Pandya. So this is another area of concern for them because wickets will be on the slower side in India and spinners will get much assistance from the wicket and they will test their skills and temperament. 

Inconsistent Bowling Line up

In the last 2 years 3 times, India lost the match by 10 wickets. They were unable to get the wicket in 2021 against Pakistan then in the 2022 World Cup against England and now in an ODI against Australia. Their key bowler Jasprit Bumrah is out of the action for some time and he will miss the entire IPL also. It will dent further Indian cricket team because he is the backbone of the Indian Bowling lineup. India is trying different combinations in ODI and they have examined almost every top bowler of IPL but are still unsure. Mohammed Siraj and Hardik Pandya have done really well in recent series and Mohammed Shami was also looking in rhythm. But who will get in and will perform only time will decide. 

So these are the areas of concern of Team India for the upcoming events and I am sure that they will be keeping an eye on each and every department of the game. They need to fix these things because they need this title badly for their fans and supporters. 

But this is the Time for the mega entertainment event IPL which is going to start on 31st march.