ICC ODI World Cup 2023: Team India's SWOT Analysis and Strongest Playing 11

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ICC ODI World Cup 2023: The ICC marquee event is all set to kick off from October 5 and host India are once again the favourites to clinch the trophy. The Men in Blue are often the one of the main contenders, however, it has been 10 years since the team last won an ICC trophy.

India won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013. Their last World Cup win came back in 2011 at home. Another home World Cup gives India the opportunity to end their drought and give the nation of billions a gift they have been waiting for a long time.

As India gears up for the crucial campaign, let's do a SWOT analysis of the Rohit Sharma-led squad.

Strength

Strengths for the Indian team are many at the moment. The team recently won the Asia Cup 2023 and the bilateral series against Australia. The top order of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat is in top form. The middle-order and the lower-order comprising Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja look in good shape.

The spin department has got the boost of veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. Kuldeep Yadav is India's trump card at the moment and Ravindra Jadeja is always handy with his left-arm spin. The pace unit of Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur and Hardik are more than capable to come all guns blazing against any opponent.

Weakness

No weakness for now. However, KL Rahul would want to be more mindful of his wicket-keeping. He was found making several errors during the bilateral series against Australia. Keeping the wickets against the spinners in the subcontinent conditions would not be easy for Rahul.

Opportunity

There is opportunity for Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Shami to lay their hands on the coveted World Cup trophy in understandably their last outing at the 50-over ICC event.

The likes of Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur will be featuring in their first over World Cup. They have an opportunity to make a bigger name for themselves on the biggest stage in world cricket.

There will be an opportunity for the current Indian squad to emulate what MS Dhoni's 2011 squad achieved back in 2011.

Threat

There are a couple of threats for Team India in the World Cup 2023 - one cricketing and one psychological. Indian players have been traditionally known to be excellent players of spin bowling. But the last few years have found them wanting against quality spin bowling. Almost all the teams have some quality spinners in their team and India should avoid looking vulnerable against them.

Secondly, India will be playing at home. The fans in the stadium would throughout act as the 12th man for the Indian cricket stadium, but the pressure of playing at home and the burden of expectations would always be there. Dealing with it would need a lot of psychological strength and players would have to be up for the challenge.

India Strongest Playing 11 for World Cup

Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Hardik Pandya (VC), Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin/ Shardul Thakur (as per conditions), Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah

India squad for World Cup 2023: Rohit Sharma (c), 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.