England are the 3.412/5 favourites to win the Cricket World Cup this summer on home soil. As the No.1 ranked team in the world and on home soil, you can see why. But what are their strengths that make them jollies for glory this summer and just as crucially, what are their weaknesses that make us think it's not a done deal?
Strengths - Big hitters and home advantage
Batting line-up is ferocious
Let's assume that if their first match was tomorrow, England's top seven would look pretty similar to this: Bairstow, Roy, Root, Morgan, Stokes, Buttler, Ali.
First things first; that's probably the best batting line-up an England ODI side has ever boasted. The two openers score at break-neck pace, Joe Root doesn't score quite as quickly but is a class act, Eoin Morgan is England's top scorer in ODI history, Ben Stokes can play the role of hard-hitter but also that of run accumulator, Jos Buttler is arguably the most destructive batsman in the death overs of anyone in the world and Ali (below) could easily be batting in the top four for just about any international side.

With the possible exception of the great Australian ODI side between 1999 and 2007 that won three straight World Cups, I'm not sure there's ever been a better batting line-up in this format than this England one.
And that's only half the story. Add in the very capable Chris Woakes at eight, Adil Rashid (10 First Class centuries, 37 50s), Liam Plunkett at 10 and you soon realise that the game isn't over even if you dismiss the 'proper batsmen'.
Home comforts are worth their weight in gold
It's stating the obvious to say that playing in your own conditions, having home support on your side and knowing the dimensions of the grounds you're playing at, is likely to help your cause.
But that's even more the case than normal here. England have been winning anywhere and everywhere since their transformation after the last World Cup but it really is at home that they're at their best.
It doesn't affect their batting that much but it does affect their bowling, where a swinging ball early on allows them to take crucial top-order wickets, which they sometimes struggle to do elsewhere.
It's also a big boost to their chances from a historical point of view. India in 2011 and Australia in 2015 were both co-hosts and went on to win it.
Weaknesses - Too keen to push
Guilty of going at it too hard
Strange as it may sound, you sometimes think that England have gone too far with their all-out batting approach. At the last World Cup they were the definition of pedestrian batting but at times they go at it a little too hard. Smart batting means assessing the conditions and when batting first working out what a par score is rather than just thinking 'let's just try to score boundaries and see where that takes us'.

They'll surely chase whenever given the chance but they won't always be able to have it all their own way and will have to bat first on a few occasions. Sometimes 280 is more than enough but you always fear that in pursuit of scoring 330 first up, they may be all out for 240. That's where Joe Root in particular will be such a vital cog, playing more 'old school' as the others just try to deposit the ball into the stands.
Do England lack bottle?
I'm surprised that this hasn't been flagged up more often over the last few years but England may just be rivalling South Africa for the tag of biggest chokers at the main ICC events.
They did admittedly keep their cool to win the final of the 2010 T20 World Cup against Australia but they could easily have had three or four more titles to their name. All the way back in 1987 there was Mike Gatting's ill-judged reverse sweep that caused a batting collapse that resulted in England losing a final they really should have won, chasing 253 against Australia when well set. It was a similar scenario four years later in Australia, where set 250 to win, they failed to build the meaningful partnerships needed and lost to Pakistan.
Then there was the 2004 Champions Trophy final, this time at home. They had the West Indies on their knees but allowed a 10th wicket partnership to flourish and Courtney Browne and Ian Bradshaw both scored 30-odd as they chased 218 to win the match.
Fast forward to 2013 and this time there was a batting meltdown. In complete control of a chase of just 130 in what had become a rain-reduced 20-over affair against India, they lost needless wickets at the death and fell six runs short.
The 2017 edition was no better. Also in England, they went into the semis as strong favourites before posting just 211 batting first (see above) against Pakistan in the semis and crashing out.
And that's without even mentioning the biggest collapse of all. With 19 to defend off the last over at the 2016 T20 World Cup, Ben Stokes ran into Carlos 'Remember the name' Brathwaite and saw his first four deliveries go for four sixes, allowing the Windies to win with two balls to spare.
The players change over the years and some of those defeats just mentioned were in T20s but England really need to start winning the big games at the biggest tournaments when the pressure is on. The evidence is that they've struggled to do that over the years.
Conclusion:
England are deserved favourites, yes. They'll be extremely hard to beat. But if you're going into a tournament as 3.412/5 favourites before a ball has been bowled in anger, you need to be ticking just about every box. That's certainly not the case and if they go on to win it, then well done, but they can't be recommended at that price.