Five uncapped players with a chance of getting into the Indian squad for the 2015 ODI World Cup

Preparations for next year’s 50-over World Cup in Australia & New Zealand are getting underway for India with the start of the ODI series in England. Due to India’s numerous problems in Test cricket outside the subcontinent, the fact that India, of late, have had a thin time of it in ODI cricket outside Asia has been largely overlooked. They didn’t manage to win even a single ODI during their recent tours to South Africa and New Zealand, losing the two series 2-0 and 4-0 respectively. The likes of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan have been found wanting against two new balls at the start of an ODI innings. Suresh Raina still remains uncertain against the short delivery and the spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been carted around the park in conditions, to be fair, unfavourable to spin bowling.Considering the travails of a few of the players just mentioned, the Indian selectors would be well-advised to look at a few relatively fresh faces who have done well in domestic cricket and on ‘A’ tours recently. Some might argue that it is too late to try out new players given there is such less time remaining for the World Cup to get underway. But with India having 13 ODIs scheduled before the mega event, there is still enough time, in my opinion, for some of the uncapped players to make a good impression on the selectors and earn a berth in the World Cup squad. By picking the likes of Akshar Patel and Parvez Rasool for India’s ODI tour of Bangladesh in June, the selectors, to their credit, have already shown that they aren’t afraid of fast-tracking young, inexperienced players into the senior squad.Here are 5 uncapped players, as on August 26, 2014, who have a chance of getting into India’s World Cup squad:

#5 Manan Vohra

Manan Vohra

An opener with immense stroke-making ability, Manan Vohra was part of the Indian squad for the 2012 U19 World Cup but missed out due to injury. It was a huge setback for Vohra, especially as he could not be a part of what was a victorious Indian side. But he recovered quickly from that setback, and he went on to have a good 2013 IPL season for Kings XI Punjab. That led to him being one of two players, the other being David Miller, to be retained by his franchise for the 2014 season, putting huge pressure on Vohra.

He was, however, shielded for the first few games of the season, which turned out to be a wise move as he finished the season with a bang, scoring 324 runs in just 8 matches at an average of 40.50 and a strike-rate of 139.05, thereby helping take the Kings XI all the way to the final. He was, then, picked in the India A squad for the recently-concluded quadrangular one-day series in Australia, where he once again showed flashes of his abundant talent and finished up among the side’s top 5 run-scorers.

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#4 Rishi Dhawan

Rishi Dhawan

Indian skipper MS Dhoni has often complained about India lacking a seam-bowling all-rounder especially in overseas conditions. There is no point in complaining when there is simply no genuine all-rounder in India at the moment, and he’d be better off making the best of his resources. One of those resources is Rishi Dhawan, and he will be worth giving a go, before the World Cup, to see whether he is up to it at the international level. He has shown in the IPL and on India A’s tour of Australia recently that he is equipped enough to batting at No.7 or 8, and can also contribute a few useful overs with the ball, making him a handy cricketer in the conditions that one is likely to find during the World Cup in February-March of next year.

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#3 Kedar Jadhav

Kedar Jadhav

Kedar Jadhav, 29, has been one of the most consistent and hard-working players in domestic cricket over the last few years, but he has had little to show for his efforts. That might be about to change, though, with Jadhav having been one of the stand-out performers for India A during their recent trip Down Under. He also had a good season in the IPL for Delhi Daredevils in addition to having been really impressive for Maharashtra in last season’s Ranji Trophy. While the likes of Raina and Ambati Rayudu are likely to be persisted with for the moment, repeated failures in the series against England could force the selectors to look elsewhere.

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#2 Sanju Samson

Sanju Samson

Sanju Samson’s meteoric rise as a cricketer over the last 18 months has been a joy to behold. He came into the limelight, during the 2013 IPL season, when he made a match-winning 63 off 41 balls for the Rajasthan Royals against Royal Challengers Bangalore. He hasn’t looked back since then, and his place in the Indian team across all formats of the game might just be a matter of time.

Even if he is unable to force himself into the Indian playing XI by the time the World Cup starts, there seems to be little doubt that Samson will be travelling to Australia & NZ as part of the 15-member squad. After all, not just he is a brilliant batsman capable of getting into the squad on his batting capabilities alone but is also an ever-improving wicketkeeper, who can fill in for Dhoni just in case he gets injured.

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#1 Karn Sharma

Karn Sharma (centre) playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL

Since the tour of South Africa last year, R Ashwin has picked a paltry 3 wickets in 9 one-day games while Ravindra Jadeja, having taken 5 from the same number of games, has managed to fare only marginally better. The stats clearly indicate the lack of effectiveness of the two spinners, and it’s no surprise, then, that India have managed to win only 1 of those 9 matches. India base their strategy heavily around spinners making crucial breakthroughs in the middle overs of a one-day game, and they have been let down on that front in recent times.

This brings us to Karn Sharma, who has probably been the best limited-overs spinner in domestic cricket over the last 12-18 months. He first came to notice during the 2013 IPL season, when he took 13 wickets at an economy rate of 6.6 for Sunrisers Hyderabad. He has made rapid progress as a leg-spinner since then, so much so that he earned his first call-up to the Indian squad for the recent tour of Bangladesh.

By now selecting Karn for the ODIs against England as well, the selectors have tacitly indicated to him that he is very much in contention for the World Cup, and it is now up to Karn to grab hold of this chance and establish a permanent place in the ODI side.

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