Leg­endary West In­di­an Sir Vi­vian Richards feels In­dia's chances in the 2011 World Cup will large­ly de­pend on Viren­der Se­hwag's form, whom he con­sid­ers the most dan­ger­ous bats­man in present day crick­et, ac­cord­ing to the Press Trust of In­dia. "There is no doubt about it. He is just so de­struc­tive. He is to­tal­ly fear­less. In­dia need him bad­ly (dur­ing the World Cup)," the for­mer West In­dies cap­tain said. "He can be very in­tim­i­dat­ing and can pro­vide mag­nif­i­cent starts to the team which will play a big role in In­dia's suc­cess in the World Cup," he added.

While Richards said Aus­tralia's per­for­mance in the on­go­ing Ash­es se­ries was more than enough in­di­ca­tion of their cur­rent state, for­mer Pak­istan cap­tain Im­ran Khan was of the view that the Ricky Ponting-led side lack fire­pow­er in bowl­ing to win match­es. For­mer In­dia cap­tain Kapil Dev and Richards feel In­dia are run-away favourites to win next year's World Cup but Im­ran and Ar­ju­na Ranatun­ga added a note of cau­tion about their abil­i­ty to soak in the pres­sure of play­ing at home.