ICC World Cup 2019: Sanjay Manjrekar predicts India's 15-man squad for the tournament

What's the story?

Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has named his 15-member Indian squad for the ICC World Cup 2019. Manjrekar made a surprising omission in the form of Ambati Rayudu while picking up four all-rounders in Hardik Pandya, Vijay Shankar, Ravindra Jadeja and Kedar Jadhav. Manjrekar has also picked KL Rahul as a backup opener for Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma.

In case you didn’t know...

The ODI World Cup begins on 30th May in England with the hosts taking on South Africa in the opener. Every country must name its 15-member squad by April 23rd. India would not play any more ODIs before the World Cup.

The heart of the matter

The Indian team came into the 5-match ODI series high on confidence after morale-boosting bilateral series wins in Australia and New Zealand. India looked all set to win the ODI series against Australia. However, the number 2 ranked ODI side lost three matches on the trot to lose the 5-match series 3-2. The loss has come as a setback for India before the World Cup.

Although India’s ODI squad is more or less settled, there are still one or two spots up for grabs. India have tried the likes of Ambati Rayudu, KL Rahul, Vijay Shankar and Rishabh Pant for the number four slot in the batting line up. However, all of them failed to cement their spot in the team. Rayudu was pretty poor with the bat in the first three ODIs while KL Rahul was dropped after playing just one game in Mohali. Pant and Shankar failed to take India home in the final ODI.

Sanjay Manjrekar's 15-man squad for World Cup 2019: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Vijay Shankar, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul.

What's next?

The 12th edition of the IPL begins from 23rd March and hopefuls like Rishabh Pant, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik would be hoping to strengthen their claim by impressing for their respective teams in the competition.