ICC World Cup 2019: 3 players unlikely to grab the No. 4 spot for India

#1 Ambati Rayudu

Ambati Rayudu has been in extremely poor form

21, 21, 0, 1, 5, 28, 2, 18, 13, 15.

These are Ambati Rayudu's last 10 scores. Six of these are from the IPL, three from the home series against Australia, and one from a domestic game.

The figures show how horrible Rayudu's form has been, and for this reason alone he is unlikely to make it to the WC squad as the number 4 batsman.

Just when India thought that their Number 4 conundrum had been solved with Rayudu's big scores last year, he started performing poorly. His weaknesses have been exposed; he struggles a lot against extreme pace, which has been quite visible in all his recent performances. He is comfortable with medium pace but anything that goes above 130 makes him worry.

In the World Cup, where the likes of Mitchell Starc and Kagiso Rabada will be bowling to him, Rayudu will have a lot of difficulties and will not be able to stabilize India's batting.

Also, the one advantage Rayudu had over the other contenders for the spot was his part time bowling. However, he has been reported for a suspect action is now banned from bowling in international games, which makes him just another middle order batsman in the squad.

With Virat Kohli looking for consistency and someone who can bowl a few overs of pace, Vijay Shankar seems to be the best choice for No. 4. Sure he lacks experience, but under the guidance of Dhoni, Kohli and Rohit Sharma, he could become a handy member for the team.