World Cup 2019: 2 biggest weaknesses of the present Indian ODI team

All the cricket fans across the country are keenly following the Indian team's performances in the ongoing ODI series against Australia. The team management is trying to finalize the best possible team combination for the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup which will begin in England and Wales from 30th May 2019.

India will go into the tournament as one of the favorites as they have a very strong team, with some of the biggest match winners of the game, viz Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav.

What makes this present team one of the best in the world is that it has a great balance with equally competent batsman and bowlers.

The previous Indian ODI teams were mainly dependant on their batsmen for scripting their famous victories and struggled when the batsmen failed to score big runs. But the present team has some of the best pacers and spinners of the modern era, namely Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, and Yuzvendra Chahal.

These bowlers make it very difficult for the opposition batsmen to score runs freely and also have the ability to take wickets consistently. As a result, nowadays India often restricts the opposition for small totals, by getting them all out within the stipulated 50 overs.

Another big strength of this ODI unit is it's top three batsmen. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan form a formidable opening pair. Their consistency and match-winning ability make them one of the best opening pairs in the history of ODI cricket. And India's number 3, Virat Kohli, is not only the best batsman in the world but the biggest match-winner in the history of ODI cricket.

However, in spite of being a very strong unit, the current ODI team has some weaknesses also, which they need to take care of if they want to win the World Cup.

In this article, we look at the two biggest weaknesses of this present Indian ODI team.

#1 The Inconsistent Middle Order :

Rayudu's performances against Australia have been a cause of concern.

The Indian ODI team's biggest worry for the last few seasons has been the poor and unreliable performance of their middle order. The present middle order consisting of an aging MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant and Ambati Rayadu looks quite ordinary compared to the rest of the team.

They have been inconsistent in playing long innings when the top order has underperformed. Thus the team has become heavily dependant on the top 3 batsmen for winning them matches. Moreover, the middle order is also struggling to score quick runs in the big run chases or in the death overs while batting first. As a result, even when the top 3 are providing good starts, the Indian team is falling short of the score that they should ideally reach.

If the middle order woes continue in the upcoming World Cup, then it can be a cause of worry for the team, especially in the big matches, if they have to chase a big score.

#2: Lack of match-winning performances from the all-rounders :

India's Number 1 All-Rounder: Hardik Pandya

The 3 main players who are in contention for the all-rounder's spot in the team are Hardik Pandya, Vijay Shankar, and Ravindra Jadeja. Depending upon the playing conditions, the Indian team management will have to choose 1 or a maximum of 2 out of these 3.

However, the recent performances of all these three all-rounders have been very average. They have mostly played a supporting role with the bat and ball and have not been able to produce match-winning performances.

If we look at India's World Cup triumphs of 1983 and 2011, we can see that all-rounders like Mohinder Amarnath, Kapil Dev, and Yuvraj Singh made match-winning contributions with both the bat and ball.

This shows that in an event like the World Cup, the performance of an all-rounder plays a very important role in providing the right balance to the team.

The current set of all-rounders in the Indian ODI team need to pull up their socks and try and make a bigger impact than what they have done so far in the upcoming World Cup,