Five Problems Which India Should Address Before 2019 World Cup

Team India failed to fulfil the expectations this time as hosts manage to defeat visitors quite convincingly in their own backyard. In the recently-concluded One-day International series against England, India failed to wrap up the series on a positive note as visitors guide the series towards home by 2-1.

With this, the winning streak of India came to an end as India won nine consecutive series and never conceived a series defeat from around two-and-a-half-years.

As the 2019 World Cup is around the corner, India needs to address a few lapses. If left undiscussed, these problems may prove fatal for Virat Kohli and his company during the mega cricketing carnival in the United Kingdom (UK).

Let us have a look towards the top five problems which India needs to address before the mega event.

1 Mystification of the number four spot:

India has been displaying a fantastic white-ball cricket for a very long time. They won the 2011 World Cup and were the runners-up of Champions Trophy, 2017. Presently, India is ranked number two in ICC’s ODI rankings.

The lynchpin for the success of India is their dominance, especially in batting. With the likes of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, India needs not to worry about their opening pair.

However, it is followed by skipper Virat Kohli, who bats at crucial number three. When it comes to number four, the things start to cave in.

India recently used KL Rahul to fill the boots followed by Dinesh Karthik, however, both remained unsuccessful. India surely needs to look at this issue before going for the World Cup.

2. Overdependence on top three batters:

As hinted above, India is over-reliant on the top three batsmen of the team. Barring them, the rest of the batsman is unable to captivate the innings.

India suffers a massive collapse whenever the top three batters of the team failed to score. India needs to address this very issue before it will be too late.

3. Reserve Pacers:

When it comes to the speedsters, India is having a dearth of it. In the recently culminated limited-overs leg, Jasprit Bumrah got out due to a finger injury. His partner, Bhuvneshwar Kumar received back injury and was struggling in the third ODI which proves he has not recovered yet.

India tried Siddarth Kaul, Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur but all failed miserably.

The other pacers Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma did not show much significance after being dropped. India needs to resolve this issue by considering the conditions, seamers would be having a great role to play in English conditions.

4. A backup bowler:

What will India do if anyone among the five bowlers will be having a bad day?

In the presence of Hardik Pandya, India finally got a much-needed all-rounder. However, when it comes to Pandya he is expensive on occasions. He can be erratic with his line that may dent India.

India had a player like Kedhar Jadhav in past, however, after being dropped he failed to make a comeback. On occasions, he was managing 4-5 overs and was handy with the bat as well.

Before the 2019 World Cup either India needs to resolve the issue of Hardik Pandya or they need to groom any other player.

5. Problems of finishing:

The sooner the better for Team India will be to realise that they need someone to finish the game. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has done the job of finishing from quite a long time for the team.

However, his finishing skills seem to have been vanishing day by day.

Dinesh Karthik played a finishing knock in the final of Nidahas Trophy but he is inconsistent with that. With the likes of Hardik Pandya, he can provide such handy cameos at the end but he is irregular to do that, for India.