Ethiopian Mosinet Geremew will bid to defend his title for the third successive year at the TCS World 10K here on May 21.
New Zealand's Zane Robertson and another Ethiopian Birhanu Legese could spoil Geremew's dreams as the trio will battle it out for the premier 10K run in the world.
Both Robertson and Legese have the distinction of running faster than the defending champion's personal best of 27.36.
Robertson, a Rio Olympics 10,000m finalist, ran his best of 27:28 while winning in Berlin last October, the fastest time in the world last year.
Legese has a 10km personal best of 27:38 and is also no stranger to Indian road races. He was an impressive winner of the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon in 2015 when he clocked 59:20.
The 25-year-old Geremew has been in form as he won a strong field at the Yangzhou International Half Marathon in China last month after clocking 60:56.
The trio, along with other runners, will contest for a total prize money of USD 2,05,059, Sports Management Firm Procam International said in a statement here.
Also worth keeping an eye on will be Kenya's Edwin Kiptoo and Ethiopia's Guye Adola.
Neither man has yet run under 28 minutes for 10km on the roads but both of them have already gone under the hour for the half marathon this year and will be out to substantially revise their personal bests over the shorter distance in Bengaluru.
The target time for all the top runners is the men's course record of 27:44, set by Kenya's Geoffrey Kamworor in 2014.
World record holder Leonard Komon from Kenya also will be eager to get much closer to Geremew than in their last encounter when he could only finish a disappointing 17th in Yangzhou.
Komon had clocked 26:44 in Utrecht back in 2010 and he had started this year in good form, which included a 12th place finish at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in March.
The women's course record also belongs to a Kenyan, Lucy Kabuu, who clocked 31:48 in 2014.
However, Lucy's time looks well within the grasp of 2017 world cross country champion Irene Cheptai, also from Kenya, who has only had a handful of road races but can boast of a best of 31:45 from 2014, an excellent time when one remembers it was set at altitude in Nairobi.
Cheptai is one of five women who have personal best times under the current women's course record, including her compatriot Gladys Chesir.
Chesir is also the fastest woman in the field with 30:41 from when she won in Berlin two years ago.
Among the Kenyan pair's rivals will be Ethiopia's Wude Yimer, who won this race in 2010 and was placed second and third in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
In addition to the TCS World 10K for elite runners, there is an Open 10K, the Majja Run (6km), the Senior Citizens' Race and Champions with Disability Race (both 4km).
Approximately 24,000 runners will take to the roads of Bengaluru for five different races in what has become an annual event on the third Sunday in May and has emerged as Asia's leading run at this distance over the last nine years.
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