Mahendra Singh Dhoni knows what it takes to win a Twenty20 World Cup and he believes England have enough power and poise to mount a real challenge over the next fortnight.

Dhoni and his Indian team will be trying to defend a title they won in Johannesburg nearly two years ago and joining them among the favourites are all the usual suspects - Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

England, however, received precious few name checks last Sunday when one international captain after another was asked for his tip for the top.

Hardly surprising, really. Although English cricketers were the first to play one-day stuff on a regular basis, they have never won either a 60 or 50-over global competition in more than 30 years of trying. And as for Twenty20, born here in 2003, it was almost painful to watch England's stuttering efforts in 2007.

Hope springs eternal, though, and their nine-wicket trouncing of the West Indies in yesterday's final warm-up game at Lord's was uplifting. Dhoni certainly believes there is sufficient talent in Paul Collingwood's squad to make the hosts dangerous dark horses.

"They are quite a well balanced unit," said India's skipper. "They've got the firepower in their batting, have a very good bowling line-up and will know the conditions here better than anyone.

"England are a very good side and they have the potential of being the champions. It is just that they need to perform consistently."

Not often England's strongest point (though they were consistently awful during the 2007 50-over World Cup in the Caribbean) and it is something about their game which baffles another Twenty20 captain - Scotland's Gavin Hamilton. "They have this knack of looking outstanding in patches but then a couple of weeks down the line it's all changed," said Hamilton, the former Yorkshire all-rounder who played one Test for England against South Africa nearly 10 years ago.

"But Twenty20 can be decided in two or three overs and England are more than capable. I have no doubt that once they turn that corner they'll be flying."

It is impossible to put a price on what a triumphant Twenty20 World Cup campaign would mean for English cricket in terms of encouraging youngsters to kick away their footballs for a few weeks in order to try either a new sport or one gradually losing some of its glamour as memories of that electrifying 2005 Ashes series fade away.

And then there is the confidence, and feeling of well being, which a successful tournament would create among players and spectators alike just before attention turns to this summer's Ashes.

India, hard though it is credit these days, were no more than lukewarm about Twenty20 cricket until Dhoni's team defeated Pakistan in a spectacular 2007 final. But suddenly the newest form of the game gripped the imagination of millions, the Indian Premier League was born soon after and a bandwagon gained unstoppable momentum.

The problem for Dhoni and Co is that anything less than retaining the World Twenty20 crown will be seen as failure by many in India. But that is not something likely to keep the dashing Dhoni awake at night, it seems.

"Expectation levels are not set by us but by others," said the batsman-keeper.

"We are here to play to the best of our potential. We are not thinking about what may happen. We want to enjoy the games and play aggressively."

Sounds like a good motto for England to adopt.