Expectations have risen with a balanced team and a powerful batting lineup that give India a chance to improve on the two previous World Cups held on the subcontinent in 1987 and 1996, when it made the semifinals.
Though India has won the World Cup before, in 1983 under Kapil Dev, Dhoni stands to go one better if he can lift the trophy in Mumbai on April 2, having already won an international title for his country at the World Twenty20 in South Africa in 2007.
Despite the inevitable tension, Dhoni has been relaxed in his approach. And his side has responded with convincing wins in practice games over Australia and New Zealand, and a similarly impressive victory in its World Cup opener in Group B last Saturday against fellow co-host Bangladesh.
"There is pressure if you win, pressure if you lose," he said ahead of the game against Bangladesh. "I would have told you the exact figure (of pressure) if I had a machine to measure it."
Such a situation is inevitable given that India is both a co-host and a tournament favourite, when it was neither in 1983.
Dev led an unfancied team which shocked favorite West Indies in the final at Lord's, triggering a process that eventually made the country the financial epicenter of the game.
Now, Dev is bullish about the current team's prospects of hoisting the trophy again for India.
"Dhoni should do better than me," he said recently. "He is a very fine cricketer, a fantastic captain and I hope he can achieve everything he wanted."
"The Indian team for the World Cup is the strongest batting lineup we have ever seen in world cricket. It looks a balanced team, though the bowling is a bit weak. So if they can play to their abilities they can emerge world champions," he said.
The batting lineup led by the world's highest-scoring batsman Sachin Tendulkar also has names like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and captain Dhoni himself, who have all proved themselves over the years.
With Virat Kohli and Yusuf Pathan also going into the tournament in fine form, it is a batting lineup envied by rival captains. Education
Just as the landscape of cricket has changed since the last World Cup, with the advent of Twenty20 cricket, so Dhoni's stature has risen significantly in the intervening years.
India found a new leader when, with the country virtually in mourning after its shock exit from the 2007 World Cup, Dhoni led a young side to victory in the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa.
He then gradually took over as captain of the one-day and Test teams with success.
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