How is the Indian ODI team shaping up for the World Cup?

The quadrennial Cricket World Cup is just a year away to be held at England. Every 50 overs tournament or series from now on will be used by the teams to sharpen their skills and to iron out the problem areas. Its a good time to visit what is in store for India and how the team is shaping up.

When India won the world cup in 2011, India had a great top order, good spinners and a couple of good pacers ably lead by Captain Dhoni. But one of the most important things to note in that team was that 3-4 batsmen in the top order could easily roll over a few overs. Sachin, Sehwag, Pathan/Raina and Yuvi all bowled in that tournament. Infact Yuvraj was one of the top wicket takers of the tournament. This was great advantage for India because this allowed us to play 7 proper batsmen including the wicket keeper through out the tournament. And even if the 5th bowler went for runs or if one of the primary bowlers was being hit around, the captain could always fall back upon a Raina or Sehwag to bowl a few overs.

With the current Indian team this is a major drawback. We have highly accomplished batsmen but none in our top 6 can bowl. This means, India goes in with 5 specialist bowlers including an allrounder (Hardik Pandya) and if a bowler has an off day, you have no back up option. This can hurt India in such a big tournament like World Cup.

So what are our options?

Raina has been so inconsistent while facing short pitch deliveries that he is no longer in the team. Yuvraj is a pale shadow of the Yuvi of 2011. Ashwin and Jadeja (Bowling allrounders) have been out of favour due to their inconsistent performances in Limited Overs Cricket. India tried Kedar Jhadav for a while but his performance outside India is nothing to crave about. Ambati Rayudu has been chosen for the upcoming England series and he can roll in a few overs.

Among the youngsters, we have seen Nitish Rana who can bowl a few overs but is he good enough with the bat in foreign conditions? He is completely untested and selectors are yet to show any faith on him. There is Deepak Hooda who is an established allrounder in domestic circuit who should get a look in soon. Also there is Vijay Shankar who is a decent allrounder who can be given a long rope to test his mettle.

Now the big question is does the Indian selectors wish to try out these young guns and sacrifice a batting position for an allrounder or do they feel that 6+5 is the way to go for 2019? India has a superb top order in Dhawan, Rohit, Kohli with an established middle order in Dhoni, Rahul, Rayudu/Iyer. 2-3 plays well and India can build a big total. Among bowlers, we have good pace attack and good spinners topping that with an established all rounder in Hardik Pandya. This team is good enough to win the world cup but the question about the lack of batting allrounder makes me a bit sceptical. What is your take?