World Cup 2019: 3 concerns for India ahead of their opening fixture against South Africa

Team India will kickstart their World Cup campaign against South Africa on June 5 in Southampton. It will already be about a week before the Men in Blue play their opening encounter which will allow the Virat Kohli-led side with enough time to assess the conditions and be game ready to take on the Proteas.

However, the team has already played two practice games in the lead-up to the tournament. If the first game against the Kiwis didn't produce the desired result, the Indian team did turn up better in their second warm-up clash against Bangladesh to secure a thumping win by 95 runs. While results don't hold much significance in such games, it is the individual performance and the confidence of being in rhythm that the teams look to achieve.

Even in India's case, there were a host of positives with KL Rahul probably solving the No.4 conundrum, MS Dhoni continuing his IPL form, Bumrah being in supreme bowling form and wrist spinners getting few wickets in the second game. But still, there were few areas of concerns which Kohli and the team management would love to plug-in before their opening clash against South Africa.

Here we look at 3 major areas of concerns for Team India:

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#1 Openers failing to deliver

A lot will rest upon India's opening duo

If India has been known as a powerhouse of batting in the past few years, it is courtesy of their dynamic opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan who have been remarkably consistent in the white-ball format. Along with Virat Kohli, they form one of the deadliest top three in world cricket.

However, the recent form of India's openers has been worrisome. Both the openers struggled for form in India's last ODI series against Australia, barring a solitary game at Mohali. And even in the two warm-up matches, the opening duo has failed to show any signs of dominance over the opposition. They were sent back cheaply in both the games and their lack of runs is India's biggest concern before their opening fixture against South Africa.

While Rohit looked set against Bangladesh before falling to a poor shot, Dhawan has been consistently troubled by the early swing on offer for the bowlers. India would desperately hope for a change in fortunes for the two, given they are too good to be out of form for such a long time.

#2 Bhuvneshwar Kumar's form with the ball

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Being India's most reliable white-ball bowlers in the past few years, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has witnessed a dip in form ever since his back injury which saw him out of the game for a decent amount of time in 2018. His injury has coincided with the resurgence of Mohammad Shami - the white-ball bowler, which resulted in Bhuvi moving down in the pecking order.

Jasprit Bumrah is now India's premier option in the pace bowling department. It is likely that he will start with Shami if India is to play only two fast bowlers in the match. However, in a country like the UK where overhead conditions can assist the seamers, Bhuvneshwar does become a potent member of the attack, given his ability to make the ball move both ways.

His form is a worrying sign for the management as he looks low on confidence, something that reflected in his bowling, especially during IPL.

#3 Kedar Jadhav's injury

Jadhav is making quick progress to be fit again

Kedar Jadhav's injury has been one of the other talking points surrounding India's World Cup campaign. The 34-year-old injured himself while fielding for Chennai Super Kings in the last league game against Kings XI Punjab in IPL 2019. As a result, he missed CSK's matches in the knockouts stages.

Despite the injury concerns, he was named in India's 15-man World Cup squad which travelled to the UK. Ever since landing in the country, Jadhav has failed to recover from his injury, which made him sit out for both the warm-up games ahead of the tournament.

While it is reported that Jadhav is on his way to full fitness in time for India's opener against South Africa, it will be interesting to know whether the team trusts his fitness to play him directly in a WC game.

Jadhav offers a lot to the team with his all-round skills. He has a knack of picking wickets and can fill-in for any bowler who may have a bad day at the office.