With licence to thrill, England look to deny India home World Cup win

NEW DELHI : England hope to ride their formidable batting firepower to a second successive World Cup title but if India's crafty spinners and sprightly pace attack can fully exploit home conditions the country's cricket-mad fans could have something to celebrate.

Since failing to make it out of the pool phase at the 2015 Cricket World Cup, England have been transformed into limited-overs juggernauts, winning the 2019 title and last year's Twenty20 World Cup.

They have been blessed with a steady supply of exciting match-winners, which has encouraged them to try to redefine test cricket with their relentless, aggressive approach to the game.

Illustrating the embarrassment of riches at their disposal, England axed world-class opener Jason Roy from their World Cup squad to accommodate Harry Brook, who at 24 has already been marked out as a superstar in the making.

Eight members of their triumphant 2019 squad are back to help England try to become only the third team to defend the ODI World Cup title after West Indies and Australia.

The group includes Jos Buttler, who seems immune to the pressure of a captaincy which has weighed heavily on others.

Star all-rounder Ben Stokes has come out of ODI 'retirement' and is back in the squad, albeit purely as a batter, and has picked up where he left off by belting 182 against New Zealand last month - the highest ODI score by an English batter.

But while England's only batting headache is who to leave out, their bowling stocks look much thinner, with Jofra Archer missing through injury and lingering concerns about fellow speedster Mark Wood's fitness.

Hosts India have no such concerns and skipper Rohit Sharma has all his frontline players back and raring to go as the hosts look to repeat their