Four Indian Players who are no more in the scheme of things for the World Cup

2. Ajinkya Rahane

Rahane could be ideal on English conditions

In the 2015 World Cup in Australia, apart from scoring a brilliant 79 off 60 balls against South Africa, Ajinkya Rahane has not done anything extraordinary. But Rahane met success immediately after the World Cup in the South Africa series when he had scores of 60,51,4,45 & 87.

Against the West Indies in West Indies, Rahane made 62,103,72,60 & 39. This was by far Rahane’s best one-day series. Even against Australia in India in 2017, Rahane had a good run with scores of 5, 55, 70, 53 & 61. In recent times, Rahane has failed only in the series against South Africa in South Africa.

Rahane has scored 808 runs in the last 20 innings at an average of 40. Not bad by any standards. But where Rahane failed was in forcing the pace and being a match winner. At times, Rahane struggled to rotate the strike. Though a safe fielder, Rahane doesn’t bowl which diminishes his utility value to the team.

Rahane could have been the solution to India’s middle-order muddle in one-day matches. Rahane could be a useful batsman at No 4 and could bring stability to the Indian middle-order, more so on English pitches. Rahane is the ideal batsman to come in when there is an early loss of wickets. With his sound technique, the odds of Rahane coming good in English conditions are quite high than any other middle-order batsmen in the current Indian team. But the selectors may have decided to keep him out of the fray for the World Cup.