There is a little under a year left for the ICC World cup 2019 to begin. The 2019 edition of the cricket’s mega event will be played in England and Wales and will see the format of the tournament revert to that of the 1992 edition, with 10 teams playing each other in a round-robin format.
The top seven teams in the ICC ODI ranking by the cutoff date last year, qualified for the World Cup directly. The West Indies and Afghanistan qualified for the ICC World Cup 2019, by becoming the top two teams in the ICC World cup qualifiers in 2018 in Zimbabwe.
Team India, who were the defending champions in World Cup 2015, reached the semi-finals of the tournament held in Australia and New Zealand. This time, however, they will be led into the tournament by probably one of the best batsmen in the format, Virat Kohli.
Therefore, COC takes a sneak peek into which 11 players would be best for the Virat Kohli led team in the mega event, a team that might enable Kohli to bring the World Cup back to India and lifts the trophy in England after a gap of 34 years.
Under Virat Kohli’s captaincy, India has achieved a historic 5-1 win over South Africa in the 6 match ODI series in South Africa. Kohli’s aggressiveness has affected the entire Indian team and their thirst to win has only intensified over the last few months.
He has backed players like Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal to the hilt and has turned them, including Bumrah into proven match winners. With the experience of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, these three young bowlers should be highly effective for India in the upcoming World Cup in 2019 in English conditions.
These frontline bowlers might be supported by the likes of Hardik Pandya, who has effective medium pacers and the slinging off spinners of Kedar Jadhav. Jadhav, who is currently undergoing rehab for his hamstring injury, which made him miss the IPL 2018, became a trusted lieutenant of Kohli during the last few series.
Jadhav, along with Pandya might also play the role of finishers and give the boost to the score of the team in the final few overs.
The opening combination of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan have been very successful in England in the previous two editions of the ICC Champions Trophy and would like to continue their good run for India in the World Cup as well.
Captain Virat Kohli will continue at no.3 to give impetus to the innings and might be followed by KL Rahul, who has shown the acumen and temperament for playing long innings. Rahul can negotiate both quick bowling and spin with ease, helping him anchor the innings in dire situations.
MS Dhoni, for whom it might the fourth World Cup appearance, might helm the no.5 position. This gives him ample time to get settled and tee off when needed the most. He has shown in the IPL 2018 that his hitting abilities were at the peak.
The 12th man of the COC team is Dinesh Karthik, who has shown great abilities to finish the match or carry the match in his shoulders. However, the bowling abilities of a fit Kedar Jadhav piped Karthik into the playing XI.
COC Best Playing XI for Team India in the ICC World Cup 2019:
Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (C), KL Rahul, MS Dhoni (WK), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Dinesh Karthik (12th Man)
