Interestingly, India has never lost to Pakistan in the World Cup. Winning its three encounters in 1992, 1996 and 1999. The last one being during the peak of Kargil war.

Consistency in performance will be the best bet. One small error and you are out of the game. In the 1999 World Cup, fans will remember, Australia were tottering at 70 odd for 5 against South Africa, Steve Waugh was batting on 22, when Herschelle Gibbs dropped one of the easiest catches. Waugh, went on to score a hundred and win the game as Australia qualified for the finals, South Africans were left out.

Probably the weakest link in India's attempt for the World Cup is the bowling. Srinath is still deadly as he showed in New Zealand and Zaheer Khan can rattle top batsmen, however, they do not compare with the accuracy of Glen McGrath or Shaun Pollock; the guiles of the likes of Wasim Akram or Allan Donald; the speed of Shoiab Akhtar, Bret Lee or Shane Bond. Just imagine India has a bowling line-up which is far from being fearsome other than on tailored Indian wickets, rather unplayable dustbowls, where Anil Kumble is the king. Interestingly, only one bowler figures in the list of 50 top one-day bowlers to have played the game ever. And that is not Kapil or Kumble, but Zaheer Khan that too at the 50th spot.

Well the story was the same in 1983. But Kapil Dev with the likes of Madan Lal, Roger Binny, Balwinder Sandhu and even Mohinder Amarnath proved very effective under typically English conditions where the ball tends to swing and move off the wicket. Binny, had then taken a record 18 wickets in the Cup.

On wickets like those in South Africa, Anil Kumble, in the past, has been proved ineffective. Against teams like Australia, Pakistan and England, the three main teams in India's pool, Kumble has done well only against Pakistan, whereas against Australia and England his bowling average—calculated at runs given per wicket—rises sharply.

Harbhajan will be able to contain and can chip in with wickets. But do they compare with the likes of Shane Warne, Muttaih Murlitharan or Saqlain Mushtaq? In terms of bowling economy rates and averages, both the Indians are behind the other three. And will the extra bounce help the spinners? It will, in case of Harbhajan as the spinning ball with additional bounce will be difficult to tackle.

In the past few months, the batting line-up has shown no consistency other than inspire awe on paper. And yes critics of all varieties think that the batsmen smash inane bowling attacks apart. The showing in New Zealand did not bolster that image. Each match seemed like a replay of the previous one. In the recent past, of course the sole exception being the win in the Natwest final at Lord’s in July 2002, the batting has not shown the solidity of the Australians and South Africans display. The Australians have such a dependable line-up that they dropped the Waugh twins, Steve and Mark, even as both figure in the top five run-getters in World Cup competitions ever. The other three are Sachin Tendulkar, Pakistani Javed Miandad and Sir Vivian Richards.

If form displayed in New Zealand is any yardstick then the Indians, with the exception of Sehwag and Yuvraj, who batted very well in NZ, are woefully out of form and low on confidence. In any case, it’s top three, that is, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, do not have their best performances reserved for matches against Australia, England or Pakistan. (The three teams will pose the biggest threat in clearing the first round itself). The batting averages and form drops drastically against these teams and the record speaks for itself.

However, as Navjot Sidhu often says "statistics are like bikinis they reveal something and hide something." God willing, this time the big three of Indian Cricket will reveal something and tame Australia and Pakistan, if the three have good batting averages. Men like Michael Bevan, Ramesh Sarwan, Matthew Hayden, J. Kallis are ahead of even Tendulkar on averages. And nothing much separates Yousuf Yohanna, Boetta Dipenaar, Lance Klusner, Biran Lara, Ricky Ponting, Gary Kirsten, Inzimam-ul-haq, Saeed Anwar, M. Attapattu , Daren Lehman and Marcus Trescothick from the Indian top guns.

The pitches, yes , that could be an important factor. The bounce on the pitches can be unsettling for the Indians. On past visits to South Africa, Tendulkar and Dravid had mastered the bounce at least in Test matches. At a latter stage, even Sehwag had arrived with a bang by scoring a century on debut.

So will the big three, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly pull it off for India? Will Virender Sehwag , in the youthful company of Yuvraj Singh and Mohd Kaif, provide the right kind of explosives? Delivering the goods as a team in crunch situations is what will count.

And twenty years ago when Kapil Dev with his devils (remember the media had dubbed the team as Kapil’s Devils) turned the world upside down— the team had a slew of all-rounders. These included men like Roger Binny, Madan Lal, Kirti Azad or Mohinder Amarnath who effectively turned his arm over. In cricket parlance, they are the bits-and-pieces men, who make the difference. India, who were 66-1 outsiders at the start, were the unlikely winners, beating the 'Kings' of World Cup cricket - the West Indies - in a remarkable final at Lord's. An India victory then had seemed as improbable as Bollywood comedian Mukri impossibly beating Amitabh Bachchan in the final scene of a Manmohan Desai formula Hindi movie. In case of the West Indians, their confidence of getting to India's modest total of 183 seemed to have led to their doom. Such totals were as simple to get as swatting a fly for the accomplished opening pair of Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge. But Kapil and his men had other ideas.

At least now, Saurav Ganguly has a piece of history to back him that India has won the Cup once. In 1983, India had arrived in England with only one World Cup win that too against East Africa. And straightaway humbled the mighty West Indies, who till then had never lost a game in the previous two World Cups in 1975 and 1979. Actually old-timers will recollect that the foundation of the World Cup had been laid in an unbelievable fashion. India were on tour to the West Indies in early 1983. On March 29, that year India defeated West Indies for the first time in a one day match that was played at Berbice, Guyana, West Indies. Sunil Gavaskar had then scored 90 of 117 balls and Kapil Dev hit 72 of only 38 balls. In reply to India's 282, the Windies led by the Clive Lloyd were all out for 255 with Ravi Shastri taking three wickets. In today's terms this is like defeating Australia in Australia on a fast pitch. And in 2003, the tour of New Zealand was one which all want to forget so that goes for preparation. But in 1983 there was no marketing, the World Cup win changed the dynamics forever.