Can India really challenge for the Cricket World Cup?

India’s batting seems very unpredictable right now. Kohli is the only one who can be relied upon. Considering how India batted in England last year, the chances seem bleak. Top order consistently fails to deliver home and away! Should KL Rahul get a shot instead of Dhawan?

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Certainly, favourites. India has the potential to go all the way and they might end up winning as well…

Dhawan and Rahul are equally good. However, we need to choose them properly considering the pitch. Dhawan plays well on fast and bouncy wickets like Australia. He might not be well suited for England pitch. Rahul, I think would be better there.main-qimg-9d38b20c5244d8de8e943a0b55ba3267

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Okay. So there has been a lot of hype surrounding this Indian team that they can win the world cup but I don’t see them reaching beyond semifinals. Call me pessimist if you want to but I feel we cannot win the world cup. Well I have a few reasons based on numbers:

  1. I have been following cricket for almost one and a half decade now and I have never seen a weaker middle order than this. I mean number four is the biggest issue. In 2019 ambati rayadu has played 10 innings and scored a meek 247 runs and if you remove a 90 run innings the numbers look even wors, even Dhoni and Jadhav haven’t filled me with confidence.
  2. The opening partnerships which people say is our biggest strength is struggling. Shikhar Dhawan and even rohit Sharma are performing in patches with a lack of consistency.
  3. Death over bowling is a weakness as well, other than bumrah I don’t see the second bowler who can bowl well in death over. I agree Shami is in exceptional form right now but his economy is over 8 when it comes to death over.

Strength for India going in this world cup are three:

  1. Bumrah
    2.Kuldeep
  2. Kohli

I don’t really feel that any description in needed in these three points. :stuck_out_tongue::stuck_out_tongue:

However, I feel that with the right team selection India still has a chance to win the world cup. For me my ideal team would be

1.Dhawan (his performance has been good in England so will give him a chance in initial phase, if he fails will replace him with KL Rahul)
2. Rohit
3.Kohli
4. MS DHONI
5.Vijay Shankar
6. Kedar jadhav
7. Hardik pandya
8. Ravindra Jadeja
9.Kuldeep Yadav
10. Mohd Shami (on better swing condition would prefer bhuvi, also if Shami loses his form which he is really consistent at :stuck_out_tongue: I would put bhuvi in place of him)
11. Jasprit Bumrah
The team above would provide high balance to the team, as India would have about 7 bowlers and 8 batsman. Also the reason I chose Ravindra jadeja is because his performance has been good in England. However, jadeja could also be replaced with bhuvi if India decided to play with 3 seamers.

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I agree. Dhawan won’t be a good fit in English conditions. Rahul is better technically but wildly inconsistent as well.

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I think you have nailed it. Too many gaps to plug in this Indian side. I don’t think they will win the competition. Having said that, if Kohli does what he does best, India might just go far.

Disclaimer : I am no Cricket pundit.

Pardon my lack of technical know-how about the game and the players record but I was curious to know why the much acclaimed and promising Prithvi Shaw not considered to fill in the players that are widely debated? :thinking:

@Sai @Hemant @Anubhav1

I think his lack of experience will be an issue in English conditions.

Agree but I think today when everyone is questioning and debating the consistency and ability of ‘experienced’ players to win the World Cup, we should be grooming and providing more international opportunities / experiences to these young and promising talent in preparation for these mega events hosted every 4 years.

Irrespective of the odds, I think we still are one of the best teams and have what it takes to go all the way and bring home the World Cup! :trophy:

Okay. Prithvi Shaw is an highly talented player and will be great for our future. However, `he might be a case of right player wrong timing. I mean almost everyone would agree that prithvi shaw is an amazing player with an exceptional sense of placement and great timing but what fails him is his playing position.
He plays as an opener and is not well suited to play anywhere in the middle order. Right now, the men in blue have three established openers in KL rahul, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma. So BCCI is going with the mindset of why fix something when it ain’t broken.
Now, going in the month of December, Prithvi Shaw had a slight chance of attaining a place in the 15 as BCCI was looking for an alternative openers when KL Rahul was banned after the debacle of ‘Koffee With Karan’ but but but what went against him was an injury which he endured at the start of Australian Tour. He was not fit when BCCI was looking for an batting alternative and hence instead of Prithvi Shaw they brought in another exceptionally talented opener in Shubhman Gill.
However, SHubhman did not show the poise to cash in on the chances, Vijay SHankar who just might win a wild card entry to world cup, was another player who was brought in due to the ban placed on KL Rahul’s partner Hardik Pandya and you can see the result now.
So to brief it up the reason Prithvi will not get a chance is because

  1. India already has three established openers in ODI
  2. When a chance was created, he was injured.
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Fair enough. What are your thoughts on India winning the WC?

Seeing recent performances, India will find it difficult to win the WC.

India relies more on big knocks by Rohit/Virat in batting rather than collective effort. In opening, Shikhar is week link. In upper middle order Virat is only strong link, Rayudu/Dhoni are slow, Rahul/Pant have great potential but are just aren’t reliable right now. Lower Middle order is comparatively strong with Kedar, Hardik but Vijay is inconsistent, Jadeja hasn’t done anything to inspire confidence.

Bowling remains India’s strong suit with a few world class players jostling for places. But, I expect belter wickets in WC and bowler’s role is limited compare to batsman.

But, India does have Big Match players with proven track record, Confident Bowling and Team collectively seems to possess strong belief that they can win from any situation. They will be a handful for any team on their day.

Agree. India are reliant on Kohli and the occasional big knocks from Rohit/Dhawan. Don’t think it will work in a tournament. Probably works in a one-off game.

i dont think that we will win

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