Munaf Patel and Sudeep Tyagi wreaked havoc with seven scalps between them as India Red won the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy, steamrolling Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Blue team-mates by seven wickets in an extremely lop-sided final in Nagpur, on Sunday.
KL Rahul is expected to lead the Indian side.
With nine straight World Cup wins under their belt, the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led India stand only second to Ricky Ponting's Australian side that registered 24 consecutive victories in the showpiece event.
The Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side, which lost a closely contested series 2-3 before heading into the Test matches, were 13 points behind leaders Australia (127 rating points) in the ODI table.
The Men in Blue also have kept their unbeaten streak against Pakistan in the World Cup as the side defeated them in the 2015 and 2019 50-over World Cup. ies.
If Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men continue their losing streak in the fourth Test against Australia at Adelaide, it would prove to be the worst phase in the annals of Indian cricket.
India will enter the 11th edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup in second spot behind leaders Australia.
Regarded as one of the finest batsmen that world cricket has ever produced, Brian Lara's 15-year-old record of 400 not out against England is still the highest individual score in Test cricket. Lara believes Kohli, David Warner and Rohit Sharma have the potential to break his record.
The last time Team India won an ICC World Cup was in 2011 in India. It was a 50-over ODI format that was won under the astute leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
England start as the favourites but India have a golden chance to reverse the trend and get into gear just before the World Cup.
"I have had a very good Ranji season this year. If you talk about T20 then I have had a very good IPL season for KKR. I am bowling well, letting down 9-10 overs in every match (Vijay Hazare), so things are moving in the right direction. Wickets are coming my way and I am also getting runs, when I am batting.
Rohit Sharma said he is glad that MS Dhoni will continue to play the IPL for at least a couple of years.
Rohit Sharma and Manish Pandey sparkled with half-centuries but rest of India's batsmen put up a lackluster performance before the bowlers came good to hand the team a 64-run win over a second string Western Australia XI in the warm-up one-day cricket match at the WACA, in Perth, on Saturday.
A look at how India have fared in their World Cup opening games.
Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav's "mature performance" in the ongoing cricket World Cup, former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar feels the duo are on the path to become "world-class" bowlers and have been the key to India's success in the tournament.
India had more good days than bad with the Ravi Shastri-Virat Kohli combination at the helm of affairs and, as the cracking partnership of nearly seven years comes to an end, here's a look at their major achievements.
'A lot will depend on how he performs in the next few months, but he is not a liability.'
Claiming that the team has identified the reason for the loss in the first One-Day International against Bangladesh, India opener Rohit Sharma said that the bowlers should take wickets up-front to put pressure on the opposition in the must-win second match in Mirpur, Dhaka, on Sunday.
Indian cricket's fortunes ebbed and flowed in 2015 with Virat Kohli successfully leading the national side in Tests and Mahendra Singh Dhoni appearing to be losing his midas touch, while in off the field drama Shashank Manohar returned as the president of Board of Control for Cricket in India.
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