India vs New Zealand 2019: 3 positives and 2 negatives for India from their ODI series win

Negative #1: The Khaleel Ahmed situation

Khaleel has fallen down the pecking order

It is tough to be Khaleel Ahmed. A promising youngster who fought his way up through the ranks, and impressed one and all with his wicket-taking ability on pitches that are not conducive for fast bowling. Add to this his left-arm angle, a rare prospect in Indian cricket since the retirement of Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra.

All seemed to be going well for him until the first ODI against Australia where he conceded 55 runs in eight overs in a game which India lost. It was more a result of not bowling according to the conditions on offer and he was promptly dropped from the team for the next two matches of the series. He was not a part of the playing XI in the first three matches of the New Zealand series as well, and Mohammed Shami made the spot his own with his match-winning performances.

In the penultimate match of the series, he only got to bowl three overs as India lost the match due to a disappointing display from their batters. It might be too harsh to criticize him and write him off so early, however, with Shami having more or less sealed the slot of the third fast bowler for himself, the pressure is now on Khaleel to deliver performances and earn his ticket to the 2019 World Cup.

India are likely to take four fast bowlers along with Pandya for the event, and Khaleel has the likes of Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Siraj, Deepak Chahar and Siddharth Kaul breathing down his neck. However, Khaleel being a left-armer gives this Indian attack more variety and that keeps him ahead in the race for the fourth pacer's slot, but he would want to seal his place further with strong performances.

A good 2019 IPL might well help him in that.