Virender Sehwag, the former Indian batsman, has made an early prediction for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, picking India as favourites to win the title.

The Virat Kohli-led Indian side is ranked first in the MRF Tyres ICC Team Rankings in both Tests and one-day internationals. The team has been a force to reckon with in recent times, boasting of a solid batting line-up and world-class bowlers.

“The kind of ODI team we have, we are favourites to win the 2019 World Cup," said Sehwag.

India are ranked No.1 on MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings

India finished on top of the MRF Tyres ICC Test Team Rankings and retained the mace earlier this year despite losing the Test series away in South Africa. They put up a good fight, though, and completely outplayed the home side in the ODI and Twenty20 International series that followed.

“This team has the capability to win a Test series outside India, with the kind of bowling and batting we have. We just missed winning the Test series in South Africa, or else we could have created history,” said Sehwag.

India have tours in England and Australia coming up, and the former India opener was convinced they could adjust to the conditions. The absence of Steve Smith and David Warner, who are serving 12-month bans for their involvement in ball tampering, would not affect the result of the Australia Tests much, he felt.

“It does not matter if they are with the team or not. Even then, we will win,” he declared.

“In our days, we had (Javagal) Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar and Ashish Nehra, but these four never played together," he pointed out with reference to the bowling attack. "This team has lot more capability and can deliver in any conditions.”

Sehwag picked India's World T20 triumph under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni as a personal highlight. “We won two World Cups. However, we got a lot of messages on that day (2007). We were a young team and a young captain. Nobody was expecting us to win.”