Chopping, Changing Over Now In ODIs, Says Ravi Shastri

India head coach Ravi Shastri, on Thursday, made it clear that the team is more than unlikely to experiment anymore with the ODI squad ahead of the World Cup.

The players who are will not be a part of India’s squad for the ODI series in Australia can pretty much wave goodbye to their World Cup hopes as Ravi Shastri hinted the current squad is likely to travel to England. With the World Cup just a handful of months away, all the teams across the globe are busy putting up the final team.

And it looks like India have more or less identified their team. While India’s bowling and top-order has been doing consistently well, it was the middle-order especially the number four spot that looked weak.

The Indian camp was experimenting extensively since the second half of last year but without much success. Going back to the Sri Lankan tour in July-August last year, through the ODI series against Australia and New Zealand, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Ajinkya Rahane were tried at that position but none of them managed to impress.

However, Ambati Rayudu has solved that problem at least for the time being. His productive outing in the IPL helped him earn a recall after a two-year hiatus and he has not looked back since then. The right-hander missed the England tour after failing the yo-yo test but hit the ground running in Asia Cup and against Windies.

On the slow tracks of UAE, he scored 165 runs in six games with a top score of 60. Against Windies, he did even better, finishing the series with 217 runs at an average of over 62. It included a stunning century in the fourth ODI.

Shastri statement also means that MS Dhoni is also certain to make it to the World Cup despite his recent woes with the bat.

Shastri made the comment while interacting with the media ahead of the team’s departure to Australia.

“In ODIs… Chopping, changing over now. We’ll play a 15-member squad in Australia that will be close to the one that goes to the World Cup,” said Ravi Shastri.

Meanwhile, India are yet to announce the ODI squad for the Australia series. The series will start in January after the T20I and Test series.

Coming to the World Cup, England will take on South Africa in the opener on May 30, 2019, at The Oval in London.

The tournament will last for 45 days with 48 matches to be played. India will start their campaign against the Proteas on June 5.  The format for the 2019 edition will see 10 best teams in the world going head-to-head in a round-robin format. The tournament will culminate with the fifth final at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground on July 14.