Despite their poor run in the Asia Cup, where they failed to reach the finals and suffered successive defeats at the hands of Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the former champions will start off the campaign as one of the favourites for a variety of reasons.
Indian players are brought up playing world's most competitive cricket league and while this provides them so much depth, it also prepares players to face many challenges and tight situations. A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor they say. There's nothing smooth about the IPL where we often witness last ball thrillers. So a bunch of players being involved in such crunch situations day in and day out are best prepared to take on the pressures of a World Cup.
An important aspect of this year's campaign is that huge pressure will be off Indian players at the start of the campaign itself as they will be taking on nuclear armed neighbours Pakistan in their first game. That should be a cracker in front of some 110,000 fans at Australia's sporting capital – MCG.They have been extremely unlucky in global events in recent years. While there's no doubt about their skill and depth, bit of luck will see them getting through some tough hurdles.
There are a few feel good factors for India. Firstly, Virat Kohli has ended his long streak of almost three years without an international hundred. While Kohli has not been in poor form, a hundred kept eluding him until he played with freedom in the dead rubber against Afghanistan during the Asia Cup. It's important for India that Kohli is firing on all cylinders.
The return of Jasprit Bumrah is massive for India. There aren't many clever bowlers in world cricket with the new ball and there aren't certainly not many death over bowlers than Bumrah. He can unsettle good batsmen, create dot ball pressure and make things happen quickly.
A lot of big hitters in cricket are exposed when they play in bigger grounds in Australia. That's why a team needs someone like Hardik Pandya. In the middle order he can be deadly and in a matter of couple of overs, he can change the complexion of a game. His bowling at times can be found wanting, but with the bat he is a match winner any day. Very good decision by the Indian selectors to rest Pandya for the home series against Australia and South Africa just before the World Cup. He will be fresh in Australia and obviously the risk of him getting injured before event has been taken away.
Rishab Pant may have not enjoyed much success in recent times, but he's another batter to watch out for.
India will miss Ravindra Jadeja though, who is injured. A canny bowler, he has been often underrated while with the bat he chips in with handy contributions and helps India balance the side.
India have all bases covered. Solid top order, deadly middle order, pretty good pace attack and match winning spinners. They will be hard to beat in Australian conditions.
India T-20 World Cup squad: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
