India have made a strong start to their bid to win a third ODI World Cup having won all their four matches thus far. They started the tournament by beating five-time champions Australia before brushing aside Afghanistan.
India then squared off with Pakistan and ended up winning the one-sided contest and then made it four out of four by outclassing Bangladesh.
India last won the ODI World Cup in 2011 when they were the host and former New Zealand cricketer Ross Taylor reckons that playing at home makes the Rohit Sharma-led side favourites to win the title.
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“India in their home conditions are a different beast and they have started unsurprisingly strongly – I see them as favourites to win the competition at this stage…,” Taylor wrote in his column for the ICC.
So far, India have clicked as a unit with players performing across departments.
“Jasprit Bumrah has led the attack brilliantly, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravi Jadeja are bowling really nicely and their top three (batters) have been fantastic for a long time,” Taylor wrote.
“You can’t expect your top three to score runs all the time but they also now seem to have found a nice combination at four and five with Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul,” he added.
Taylor then touched upon New Zealand’s impressive record against India in ICC events.
“New Zealand have a strong recent record against India, having not lost this fixture at an ICC event for 20 years,” Taylor wrote.
“I’m not sure quite what explains why New Zealand keep beating India at these tournaments but if you talk to a lot of Indian supporters, New Zealand are their second favourite team – maybe that has something to do with it, who knows?!” he added.
It was New Zealand that ended India’s run at the 2019 ODI World Cup in England at the semi-final stage. And then they also got the better of India in the final of the inaugural ICC World Test Championship too.
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