Australia vs India ODI series: 3 Indians who might struggle and 3 who may not

With India scripting history with their first ever Test series win in Australia, the focus will now be on the ODI and the upcoming cricket World Cup that is scheduled to happen in England and Wales from the month of May.

The Indian team has a settled look barring a few players whose form may be of concern but anyways this is a strong unit that has the potential to lift the World Cup for the third time.

Before the mega event, India still has some more limited-overs games left which will help them to address combinations, as well as the players, form before they could embark their journey to the World Cup.

We will look at three Indian players who might struggle in the ODI series against Australia and three players who won't struggle, contrary to expectations.

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Honourable Mention: Virat Kohli

King Kohli

Although he had a subdued Test series in Australia by his own standards, he will remain India's best batsman ahead of the ODI series. His back problem may be of a concern but as fit he is, he will definitely overcome those and will be expected to be a top performer once again when he takes the field against Australia in first ODI.

Virat Kohli will lead a full-strength Indian squad against a depleted Australian side and are expected to come out on top over the struggling Aussies without much fuss. Kohli, as usual, will be looking forward to facing his favourite opposition in his most favourite format.

His limited overs record in Australia is supreme. He has scored two centuries when these two sides met before in 2016 and will be looking forward to adding to that tally in this series too. After all, he launched his ODI career a brilliant century at Hobart in 2012.

#1 Who might struggle- Kedar Jadhav

Kedar Jadhav

Kedar Jadhav has traditionally suffered from injuries and has thus been in and out of the team. However, his vast experience and the ability to pick up some vital wickets gave him the edge and was selected over Manish Pandey.

Jadhav is viewed as a batting all-rounder who could up the scoring rate in the middle overs and rolls the arm over whenever there is a need for a wicket. His useful bowling contribution alone makes him part of the eleven, particularly in Indian conditions.

Kedar Jadhav has experience of playing in Australia but that's in "A" games and this will be an altogether different challenge to him. But his failure to convert starts to match winning ones have always in question and with large boundaries in Australia, his fitness may lead him down as he is not a big hitter of the ball. His silky touches won't fetch him runs as it does in India.

It will be interesting to see if he gets to start in playing eleven but with India looking for a finisher, he might find a spot in the team for first ODI against Australia ahead of Dinesh Karthik due to his bowling skills.

#1 Who might not struggle- Shikhar Dhawan

Gabbar will be back

Shikhar Dhawan is one of the pillars of Indian batting. He has almost 5000 ODI runs at an average of 46 with as many as 15 centuries in his limited overs career in 115 matches. Such numbers make a direct entry into any playing eleven.

Dhawan forms a potent trio with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Together, they may be considered as the best top 3 to ever play this game since Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, and Ricky Ponting. Dhawan yet remains one of the underrated ODI batsmen and receives flake for his poor Test outings and people don't see his stupendous white ball career records.

While he saves his best for ICC tournaments, this will be a perfect opportunity to fine-tune things Dhawan after his lackluster returns ODI series against the West Indies but he did have a man of the series winning performance in T20 leg which will boost his confidence.

#2 Who might struggle- Khaleel Ahmed

He has been impressive

Khaleel Ahmed is slowly but surely becoming a regular feature in the Indian limited overs set up and will be a dark horse to make it the world cup squad ahead of the likes of Umesh Yadav and experienced Ishant Sharma. While Umesh Yadav has an outside chance at being included if he has a great IPL, Ishant has already become a Test match specialist.

Khaleel has had a decent start to his international career but all of his outings came in the Indian and UAE against mediocre batting lineups like West Indies, UAE, Hong Kong, and Bangladesh.

He did play the T20 series that concluded before the Test series but struggled to find any sort of rhythm and went for runs in all the three matches. He may not be in good frame of mind and with Australia having a lot of big hitters, he may struggle and go for runs again in this ODI series.

He will only improve as a bowler and his raw pace adding to the fact he is a left arm pacer will be in his favour.

#2 Who might not struggle- Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Bhuvneshwar Kumar will lead the attack

Bhuvneshwar Kumar was last seen in action in the last of the T20 game against Australia where he bowled decently to keep batsman under check. He did not feature in any of the Test matches and is relatively fresh compared to Bumrah and Shami which makes him a certainty to lead the pace attack in first ODI against Australia.

He is set to partner Khaleel Ahmed while Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami may take rest at least for a game or two while the third fast bowler might be Hardik Pandya. With a relatively inexperienced Australian batting line-up is set to face India, Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be itching to take the ball and get some game time ahead of much tougher New Zealand series which will be a real challenge of sorts for this impressive Indian team

Bhuvi has remained fresh and will be up against a troubled Australian top order who have no clue and this could add to his advantage. India needs Kumar in top form and this is an ideal series to get back into one.

#3 Who might struggle- Yuzuvendra Chahal

Chahal

Yuzuvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav are one of the most dangerous spinning combination going around not just in India but across the world. But Chahal's form has dipped recently while Kuldeep Yadav's career skyrocketed after troubling one batsman after the other time and time again.

Chahal has Virat's faith so he will be a certainty to book a plane to England for the World Cup unless he has a poor IPL or his showing in any of the limited overs match is bad. Ravindra Jadeja's inclusion in the side may be seen as a threat to Chahal.

Chahal at the moment is not getting the same game time as he did before Jadeja's return and with Kuldeep being a necessity in the side Chahal has felt the pressure in the opportunities he has got and not been his own self. A similar pattern could follow in ODI series too where he might struggle due to the pressure of expectations.

#3 Who might not struggle- Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni will most probably play his last tour of Australia and New Zealand. His record in the Transman nations is decent, not excellent. He will look to change this when he takes the field for India after a long gap of two months after missing out on T20 series against Australia.

India needs Dhoni back to his best now more than ever as the World Cup is fast approaching and his valuable experience finishing games or playing around the middle-order in the middle overs is really important for the team.

While Dhoni's performances have diminished drastically over the years, he is still dangerous and has the ability to take the game away from the opposition as evident from the last IPL. He just needs big innings to get back into his groove and this might happen in this ODI series against Australia.

He has scored in Australia in the past in 2015 world cup and with the bowling attack of Australia not so threatening as it is used to be, MS Dhoni's path to find his feet should be this particular series.