ICC World Cup 2019: Potential answers to India's old and new muddles

Potential answers to the old and new problems

Dhoni at No 4 with Ajinkya Rahane as back up

In the World Cup, Dhoni should occupy the crucial No 4 position with Rahane as back up

India tried so many options in the past to fill in the No 4 spot but with no desirable outcome. Rayudu had repeated failures while Rahul hasn’t been given enough opportunities both as an opener and at No 4. Even in the limited opportunities that he got, he has been less impressive.

At this juncture, the better option for India would be to push MS Dhoni at No 4 and to accommodate Vijay Shankar in the middle-order. That would give more time for Dhoni to settle down in his innings. Moreover, Dhoni’s presence at No 4 would also give a more settled look to the Indian top order.

Ajinkya Rahane could be the backup option for the No 4 position as well as the reserve opener. Though Rahane is short of match practice, he has the experience of 90 ODIs behind him. Rahane could look into the IPL for some match practice. Aside, India is at present short of fielders like Ajinkya Rahane to man the boundary in the end overs.

Vijay Shankar as the sixth bowling option

Vijay Shankar - The sixth bowling option

With the likely return of Hardik Pandya for the World Cup, India’s five main bowlers would be Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya and one of the two wrist-spinners. By accommodating Vijay Shankar in the team in place of Ambati Rayudu, India could extract 4 or 5 overs from him. Then there is Kedar Jadhav to roll his arm over on slow wickets.

With this combination, India would have plenty of options in bowling, though the batting looks a bit thin. But that is the way to go for India in the World Cup. Packing the team with batsmen like Ambati Rayudu and KL Rahul who don’t bowl would worsen the problem.

At Delhi, India could restrict Australia to 272 from 175 for 1 because India had 5 regular bowlers. Whereas at Mohali, India could not defend 358 since they went into the match with only 4 regular bowlers.

From the Australian series, it is evident that Vijay Shankar and Kedar Jadhav could at best be India’s sixth and seventh bowling options in case one of the 5 regular bowlers has a day off.