ICC World Cup 2019: Harsha Bhogle Reveals His Team India Squad For Showpiece Event

The much-awaited World Cup is just a handful of months away. All the ten competing teams are doing all they can to cover all the bases before flying out to England for the showpiece event. The teams are currently busy zeroing in on the perfect squad that would help them do well in England. Team India is also having a few issues with the squad as they are yet to make a decision on several slots in the team. But veteran cricket analyst and commentator Harsha Bhogle might have made their work easier by revealing his own version of India squad for the upcoming 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.

On the very expected lines, Bhogle picked Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma as openers. However, he sprung a surprise by picking KL Rahul as the backup opener. Rahul is currently not a part of the ODI squad and with form also not on his side, his World Cup hopes are hanging by a fine thread.

For number three, Bhogle went for the incumbent Virat Kohli before picking Ambati Rayudu as the number four batsman. Bhogle went for MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav and Dinesh Karthik in the middle-order while he snubbed highly-rated Rishabh Pant. However, he pointed out that things could change after the upcoming home series against Australia.

The allrounders’ slots went to Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja. The pace bowling attack comprised of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, thus leaving out Khaleel Ahmed who has been tried out extensively in recent months. Harsha Bhogle picked Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal as spinners.

As we draw closer to the Cricket World Cup 2019, watch our experts pick their #MyWCSquad. Here's @bhogleharsha with his India squad.

What would your squad look like? Send your entries in using #MyWCSquad pic.twitter.com/lbFVOAblMo

— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) January 31, 2019

Here’s Harsha Bhogle’s Team India squad for 2019 ODI World Cup:-

Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (C), KL Rahul, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (WK), Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami.