India enter World Cup 2015 not as favourites to defend the title, but neither can their chances be ruled out. If emotions are to be kept aside and interpreted from pure cricketing point of view - India don't look like progressing beyond the league stage. But this time the format is such, big teams should progress to the quarters.

Jaded and homesick: It has been a long summer for India and the team has been on the road for quite a bit of time. Before the World Cup, India have been in Australia from December for a four-match Test series followed by a ODI tri-series. The scenario is pretty similar to 1992 when India after a long and tiring Australian tour started their World Cup campaign, which flopped badly.

However, this time few are of the opinion that India will have an edge over other teams as they won't require any acclimatisation time. But the long series preceding the big event has definitely taken a toll on the players and they look sore and jaded. Particularly bowlers, don't seem to have the spring in their stride and injuries to Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is a testimony to that. Skipper MS Dhoni also admitted in a press conference that the break from cricket after the tri-series really helped the players to recharge their batteries.

Lack experience: The selectors picking up the squad for World Cup ignored experience and instead went with a young side. In 2011, when India lifted the trophy India had a good balance of experience and youngsters. The presence of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh had a calming effect on youngsters in the team like Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Piyush Chawla.

The players in the squad have considerable amount of experience at the international level but not enough to perform at a big stage like World Cup.

Weak bowling: India needed fresh legs going into the World Cup but the selectors chose to retain bowlers who were part of the Australia series. After the Test and ODI series, the fast bowlers picked up niggles, which also forced Ishant out of the World Cup. Thankfully, injured Bhuvneshwar, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja recovered on time to pass the fitness test. Coming back to bowling, which appears to be the weakest link and India are running short of time to fix the problem.

The new format, two new balls has also made life tougher for the bowlers and more importantly Indian bowlers don't look like bowling to a plan. In Australian conditions where there is not much of swing except for movement off the pitch, Indian bowlers have struggled to hit a right or consistent line and length.

Struggling batsmen: The top batsmen in the batting line-up are struggling for form starting from Virat Kohli, who had raked four centuries in the concluded Test series against Australia. After a successful Test series, Kohli has failed to carry on the momentum to the tri-series and the two World Cup warmup matches. Moreover, there is a lot of dependancy on Kohli and he remains to be India's vital cog in the wheel. Apart from Kohli, Suresh Raina also doesn't seem to have hit the right chord with the bat and same has been the case with skipper Dhoni. Another concern top of the order is Shikhar Dhawan, whose miserable sojourn Down Under continues and the team would want him to bounce back at the earliest.

No quality allrounders: India doesn't have a charismatic and talented allrounder like Yuvraj Singh in the team and his services would be missed this time around. Yuvraj, who was man-of-the-series in the last World Cup rose to his credentials as a batting allrounder by putting up scintillating performances both with the bat and ball.

India this time have Jadeja, Axar Patel and Stuart Binny as allrounders but not to be put under potential match-winners bracket. Jadeja has recovered from an injury, Axar new at international level and Binny under lot of pressure to prove his worth.

Minnows can pack a punch: Clubbed in Group B, India have three minnows teams to face in the league stage - Zimbabwe, Ireland and United Arab Emirates. On their day these teams have the ability to create an upset and in the warm-up matches they have shown they are no pushovers. India start their World Cup campaign against two big teams in Pakistan and South Africa, also going by their recent performances, matches against minnows won't be easy ones either.