World Cup 2019: The World Cup XI that might not play the next edition

#2 Middle-Order: Francois Du Plessis, Ross Taylor, MS Dhoni (C&wk), and Mohammed Hafeez

MS Dhoni

Francois Du Plessis will be an ideal no. 3 for this team. He has scored 926 runs at an average of 57 in World Cup cricket. South Africa had a bizarre tournament as their key players were affected by injuries. Faf himself had remarked earlier that he is uncertain about how long he will continue representing South Africa. He is an impact player and will play ideal foil to Ross Taylor at no. 4.

Though Ross Taylor has been in top form since 2017, the New Zealand batsman ended up on the losing side in both 2015 and 2019 World Cups. He might still be wondering what went wrong last Sunday. Both him and Faf are excellent middle-order batsmen with the ability to play spin well; there weren't many options to replace them with. At 35, this might be the last we saw of them in World Cup cricket.

Then there’s MS Dhoni, the man who can walk into any World Cup eleven. The World Cup-winning captain will bat at no. 5 and he can anchor the team and accelerate at the death overs like has done all these years. He will also be the captain of this World Cup XI.

Mohammed Hafeez at the age of 38 will be the number six batsman of this side. The Pakistan batsman’s ability to hit spinners and his part-time off-spin bowling will be extremely useful in the middle overs.