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#3 The selections with an eye on the World Cup have yielded successful results
The selectors made a bold statement before the start of the ODI series against Sri Lanka by stating that fitness would be the biggest criteria for the selection of players, and that they are looking at creating a pool of 20-25 players from whom they will decide the squad of 15 members for the World Cup in 2019.
In that regard, some known, front line players were either rested or dropped from the ODI and T20 teams that faced Sri Lanka. Players like Ravi Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuvraj Singh and Amit Mishra were replaced by Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzhvendra Chahal, Axar Patel and Manish Pandey.
One must give credit to the players who came into the side. The biggest positives should be how the likes of Axar, Chahal and Kuldeep stopped the run flow in the middle-overs leading to falling of wickets.
Their tight, controlled spin bowling coupled with the fact that Jasprit Bumrah was given the responsibility of spearheading the bowling attack worked for India as the Lankans never got away from them, which was reflected in their below par batting performances through the series.
With one eye on the World Cup in 2019 and also making sure that bowlers are equally rotated, thereby not leading to breakdowns or injuries, this strategy of including fresh faces in the ODI and T20 teams proved to be successful.
With the home season set to start soon, one can expect more chopping and changing made to the limited overs squads but looking at how effective the players who got a chance in the Sri Lanka series were, it shouldn’t be an issue for India to keep their experimentation going on.
