There Is No Debate About Number Four Anymore, Says Shikhar Dhawan

Team India’s World Cup squad probably had just one surprise. There was no place for Ambati Rayduu in the team who was deemed to be the number 4 batsman for World Cup.

In his place, the selectors persisted with Vijay Shankar and also called back Dinesh Karthik, both of whom can bat at number four.

Apart from them, there is also KL Rahul in the team, who was once the next number four batsman.

Team India has a lot of options for number four but none of them has been tested on that spot on a regular basis, which keeps the race for number 4 position open and it is still not known who will be batting at that position.

While the debate for number 4 is still open, Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan has said that there is no debate for that spot anymore, mentioning that the coach and captain will decide who will bat at four.

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“There is no debate anymore. There is Vijay Shankar, even KL Rahul is there in the team. Whatever the captain and coach think, we will go with them,” he said.

The problem of finding a new number four started after Yuvraj Singh was dropped from the ODI side.

India tried out a number of the options at that spot.

Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav and others were also tested at that spot.

The buck seemed to end on Ajinkya Rhane on the tour of South Africa but he was dropped from the squad after the series.

Suresh Raina did make a comeback but was left out after England ODIs.

After Rayudu made his comeback for Asia Cup, he held on to the spot till team India’s last international fixture of the season.

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However, his poor IPL form meant that team India went for Vijay Shankar, who has shown promise with the bat so far.

He can also bowl and was preferred as he is a three-dimensional player.

Shankar looks a strong candidate to bat at number four.

Still, Dinesh Karthik and KL Rahul are in the race to bat at that spot.

Practice matches prior to World Cup will serve as trials to test out which batsman will bat at number four.

KL Rahul has been selected in the team as reserve-opener but can bat in the middle-order as well.