NEW DELHI: Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s India will be keen to maintain their consistency to fulfill their fans’ expectations at the Champions Trophy starting in South Africa next week. India disappointed in the tournament’s last edition at home in 2006 when they failed to qualify for the semi-finals, but have given their fans plenty to cheer about with their recent successes. They won five successive bilateral one-day series — twice against Sri Lanka and once each against England, the West Indies and New Zealand — and saw off Sri Lanka again in a Tri-nations series on Monday. “We have set our goals and one of them is to be the best team in the world,” said India coach Gary Kirsten. “We are headed that way and are very excited. We know we have to perform well as we continue the quest to be the best. We take pride in our consistency and we’d like to continue that.” India will be without explosive opener Virender Sehwag and key paceman Zaheer Khan, but Kirsten said the team still had the resources to give a good account of themselves in South Africa. The Indian batting looks formidable despite Sehwag’s absence as Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar and Dhoni are all capable of playing match-winning roles with their exciting stroke-making. The spotlight will be on middle-order batsman Rahul Dravid, who has just returned to the one-side after nearly two years. He is known for building an innings under pressure, having already scored more than 10,000 ODI runs.