ICC Champions Trophy Final India v England: India's Road to Edgbaston

India face England in the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy final at Edgbaston on Sunday. The reigning world champions have made it to their third final of this competition, losing to New Zealand in 2000 and sharing the title with Sri Lanka in 2002.

MS Dhoni's men are in brilliant form in the Champions Trophy and have won all the games played in the competition. India topped Group B with six points after winning all three games.

India played South Africa in the opening game of the competition. AB de Villiers put Dhoni's men to bat first and Shikhar Dhawan registered his maiden one day International century. The left-handed opening batsman's brilliant knock of 114 saw India post a total of 331. In reply, the Proteas fell short by 26 runs.

The second game of the Champions Trophy saw India register an easy win over West Indies. Ravindra Jadeja's match winning 5/36 saw the world champions restrict Dwayne Bravo's side to 233. Dhawan was the star again, scoring his second century of the competition and his career, as Dhoni saw his men register a win by eight wickets.

India had already progressed to the semi final before entering the final game against Pakistan. Their brilliant performance from the beginning saw Misbah-ul-Haq's side post a total of 165 as India won the tie by D/L method.

Sri Lanka did not trouble India during the semi final as the Lankans were outperformed by India in all divisions of the game. Angelo Mathews' side was restricted to 181. And in reply, Dhawan and Virat Kohli claimed their first half centuries of the competition, which saw India seal a place in the final at Edgbaston.

Strength: India's batting has been their strength during the Champions Trophy as South Africa are the only team who have been able to dismiss more than two of their batsmen. Dhawan has been rock solid at the top and is well supported by Rohit Sharma. The opening duo are then backed by a strong batting line-up - Kohli, Dinesh Karthi, Suresh Raina, Dhoni and Jadeja. India's strong batting order could help them in winning the 2013 Champions Trophy.

Weakness: England are aware of Indian batsmen being uncomfortable against the short balls and James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan are likely to take advantage of the situation. India's middle order is yet to be exposed in the Champions Trophy. Should England manage to rattle the top order early in India's innings, it will then put players like Raina, Dhoni, Karthik and Jadeja under pressure.

Opportunities: England are vulnerable to spin and Ravichandran Ashwin and Jadeja can cause serious problems. In addition to this, India's trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav have also fared well.

Threats: The Indians are likely to be cautious about the threat posed by Anderson, Broad and Bresnan. Dhoni's men were lucky not to face Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel against South Africa, which would have forced them to deal with raw pace. They did face Lasith Malinga though and dealt quite comfortably with the Sri Lankan.

Read on England's road to Edgbaston here.