Asia Cup 2018: India's Predicted XI against Pakistan

#2 Middle-Order: KL Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, and MS Dhoni (WK)

Sans Virat Kohli, the middle-order calls for a lot of options out there in the middle. Right from KL Rahul to Manish Pandey, the prospects are plenty.

The biggest question is: Who will assume the No.3 spot in the absence of Kohli? The prospective No.3 candidate for the clash against Pakistan seems KL Rahul. He has shown a lot of promise in the recent past and looks in good touch with a variety of shots in his arsenal. Hence, his place in the side as a No.3 slotted batsman looks certain.

Again there are a lot of candidates for the No.4 slot. But it seems quite inevitable that Ambati Rayudu will play in the match against Pakistan. Rayudu came back to the fray with an exciting IPL that he had. He made his way back to the Indian squad for the series against England, but a Yo-Yo test failure irked his exclusion. Nonetheless, he got his deserved break for the Asia Cup. Thus, with a fair amount of experience on his side, Rayudu will field in the No.4 place in the game against Pakistan.

MS Dhoni has been under a lot of fire for his inability to rotate strike and score runs at a not-so-good strike-rate. However, he will prove to be a key player for India in the absence of Kohli. Besides, with most of the innings to be dominated by spinners, MS seems to be the best candidate behind the stumps who could hand in some inputs to the spinners as well. Moreover, given a platform to bat higher up the order, Dhoni could prove to be a lethal entity. Hence, his place in the playing XI against Pakistan.