"India are very good, they’ve learnt how to travel and win and they have destructive bowlers and hitters in their line-up," Former South African batsman Jonty Rhodes said.

"But Australia are written off far too easily, they will obviously be strong contenders, they have a good record in the competition and they know how to win," he added.

"Home ground advantage is meaning less because all teams travel so much now and they’ve learnt how to win away from home in different conditions. The support of the crowd does make a difference, but South Africa won’t be relying on that.

"They are a really well-balanced unit and they are setting standards for the other teams to chase," Rhodes said.

"Because it’s 50-over cricket, it means the more consistent sides should come through. But you can’t afford to have a bad day. We saw that in the Twenty20 world cup, where we played great cricket but, to take nothing away from the opposition, someone like Shahid Afridi produced something special," he said.

"Everyone in the team knows their roles, they’ve got special players in batting, bowling and fielding. They’ve learnt how to hit the ground running and how to switch on very quickly and the management team of Graeme Smith and Mickey Arthur have been very good at that," Rhodes noted.