Indian Cricket 2019 World Cup Squad

With the World Cup just six weeks away, the curiosity and excitement of Indians is at its peak. The reason being; who all will be
part of the Indian squad. So, to put this excitement at rest, BCCI announced the 15 member team set to represent India for the
2019 edition of the World Cup.

The inclusion of Dinesh Karthik in place of Rishab Pant was a bit surprising because Karthik was not part of Indian ODI team
which played against Australia in the recently concluded series.

Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan & KL Rahul are the three openers in the squad with Virat Kohli & Kedhar Jhadav, the other two
specialist batsmen.

Coming to the bowling section, the selectors have chosen three fast bowlers in Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar &
Mohammed Shami and two spinners in Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.

While Dhoni & Karthik are the two specialist keepers in the team, the squad has three all-rounders in Hardik Pandya, Vijay
Shankar & Ravindra Jadeja.

Now let us analyze the team.

The batting, specially the middle order, looks thin because, although we have three world class batsmen at the top in Kohli, Rohit
and Shikhar, there is no strong batsmen for the no. 4 spot. Vijay Shankar will most likely bat at this position but he has played
just 9 ODIs in his career in which has scored only 165 runs at an average of 33. For a competition as important as world cup, we
require a more experienced player to bat at the crucial no 4 spot. Team may try KL Rahul also at this position but he too has not
played many ODIs (14 matches with 343 runs at an average of 34.3).

Kedar Jadhav will most likely bat at no 5 spot and he has a decent ODI record with an average of 43.48 in 59 matches.

It looks likely that MS Dhoni will bat at the no. 6 spot with Hardik Pandya at no. 7 followed by four bowlers.

Inclusion of Dinesh Karthik over Pant is one selection where the opinion is divided. While one school of thought disagrees with
this decision, the other defends it. As per the selectors, Dinesh Karthik has been included in the team because of his better wicket
keeping skills but if this is the reason then why is Pant preferred over Karthik in tests? We all know that Pant provides the X
factor to the team and can rip apart any bowling on his day therefore he should have made the cut.

The bowling department is well equipped. Bumrah, who is the No 1 ODI bowler in the world, will lead the bowling attack in
company of Bhuvneshwar, Shami and the rest.

Pandya, Jadeja and Shankar are the three all-rounders in the team. While Pandya has the ability of changing the course of any
match on the ability of his explosive batting, bowling and fielding, Jadeja is an ace fielder, a good batsman a wicket taking
bowler. Vijay Shankar has made the cut on the basis of his performance in the recently concluded Australia vs India series.

Although the team lacks a good middle order, the team has the capability of lifting the world cup for the third time if it plays to
its full potential.

Squad

Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Vijay Shankar, MSD (wk), Kedar Jadhav,
Dinesh Karthik (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra
Jadeja, Mohammed Shami