My World Cup Squad | 2019

My XI

1. Rohit Sharma
2. S Dhawan
3. V Kohli
4. Shreyas Iyer
5. M S Dhoni
6. Kedar Jadhav
7. H Pandya
8. B Kumar
9. Y Chahal
10. Kuldeep Yadav
11. J Bumrah

Rest of the squad

1. M Sammi
2. Umesh Yadav
3. A Rayadu
4. Rishabh Pant

Reserves/Standby

1. A Rahane
2. R Jadeja
3. D Karthik
4. V Shankar
5. M Siraj / S Kaul / K Ahamed ?

Does backup fast bowling options look thin? 

Bumrah, Bhuvi, and Shammi pick themselves up. Rest of the fast bowling resources does not look promising as of now. For 4th fast bowling option in the squad, my choice would be Umesh Yadav purely for his experience over others.

Why Shreyas Iyer was not given enough chances compared to others?

Yuvraj Singh was our biggest match-winner. After his decline, many players were tried for the middle order positions: Rahane, Rayadu, KL Rahul, S Iyer, M Pandey, etc. To be fair Rayadu did well in the opportunities given to him. He is considered to be a slow-mover in the field. Whether he can come good in difficult conditions? KL Rahul was promoted as the next big thing. But the performance column does not look good despite some handsome performances initially. We all know about Rahane's class. But he was considered to be struggling in slower-pitches. Then there is a question: What is his suitable batting position? He himself needs to partially blamed for his fall.

SS Iyer had some good scores in India 'A' tours and domestic circuit. My choice for No.4 would be SS Iyer. 

All Rounders & Additional Bowling Options

The problem with the current Indian team is that no top order batsman can bowl a few overs except K Jadhav. Earlier we used to have Sachin, Sehwag, Yuvi, Ganguly bowling few overs regularly. A lot of current players are either one-dimensional or bits and pieces players like V Shankar, K Pandya etc. Hardik Pandya is an interesting case. At least in shorter versions, he can be a close to a genuine all-rounder.  Whether he will be fit enough and last the entire World Cup tournament. Even if he is fit, whether he will be consistent with bat and ball. V Shankar in his limited opportunities looks decent with bat and a good fielder. As of now, most of us are sceptical about his bowling despite his last over heroics against Australia in the recently concluded one-day series. And there are better batsmen available than him and so he can't be picked as a specialist batsman.