(Cricket news) India's failure to make it to the Asia Cup finals is still fresh in cricket fans memories but the team doesn't have time to grieve about it as there is just 1 month left for the T20 World Cup. India have two 3 match series at home against Australia and South Africa to prepare for the World Cup. Rohit Sharma before the Asia Cup said that "more or less 80-90 percent of your team is set, of course there could be three-four changes if at all depending on the conditions." India have selected the 15 member squad with 4 stand-bys but there are still some things in the Playing XI which need to be addressed.
3) Who will be the Wicket-keeper
India have dabbled between Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik in the past 3 months. Both the glovemen are in the squad and India do play both of them whenever they can. Due to the combination of the side, the likelihood is that India will have to play only one. Both the players play different roles as Pant comes in at number 4 or 5 to accelerate the run rate and get a left hand right hand combination in while Karthik plays the finishers role. If Ravindra Jadeja was in the squad then India would've had a left hander and India would most likely have gone with Karthik just like they did in the Asia Cup.
With Jadeja being injured, India don't have a left hander who can bat at 4 or 5 like Jadeja and even if they do play Axar Patel he will bat lower down because he isn't good enough to bat at 4 or 5. This means that India will not have any left hander in the top 6 which is not ideal. As of this moment Axar Patel isn't even guaranteed to play as India have used Deepak Hooda in that role. In that case without Rishabh Pant there is no left hander at all which doesn't make sense. The other argument in favour of Pant is that Karthik's role as a finisher can be played by other players. Pant has been playing really well for the past couple of years but T20I is the one format in which he has struggled while Karthik is in good form. The decision will be touch and go but could have a massive impact on the result. These 6 matches will be very crucial in making that decision.
2) Who is Ravindra Jadeja's replacement
Ravindra Jadeja has injured his knee and will miss the World Cup which leaves India in a spot of bother. Jadeja was one of the first names in the Playing XI due to his immense ability with both ball and willow. Now that he is not there, India has a few options to replace him. The like for like replacement would be Axar Patel but in the Asia Cup, India went for Deepak Hooda in that role. The problem with playing Hooda is that even though he is better with the bat then Axar, with the ball he is significantly worse. On top of that Axar is a left hander which is an added advantage. Axar Patel has been putting in good performances with both bat and ball for a long time now and he definitely deserves to get an opportunity. Ravichandran Ashwin is also an option as is Harshal Patel but both of them are not good enough to bat at number 7.
1) Who will be the 3rd seamer
Hardik Pandya is the fast bowling all-rounder who will be in the side. In Australian conditions India will most likely go with 3 pure seamers, 1 pure spinner which is either Ashwin or Yuzvendra Chahal along with Pandya and a spin bowling all-rounder which is either Axar, Hooda or the outside the box option which is Ashwin. They could also go with 4 seamers and Hardik Pandya along with just 1 spinner who could be any of the available options. In the likely case of 3 spinners comes the big dilemma. Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar will definitely be in the playing XI. The 3rd spot is a little tricky choice between Arshdeep Singh and Harshal Patel. Both the bowlers are death over specialists which is the role they will be playing in this side. Arshdeep Singh has been doing it for the last month or so in which Harshal has been injured but Harshal has been the go to man before that. Arshdeep is a left arm seamer which is a slight advantage but a lot will depend on how each of them performs in the 6 games before the World Cup.
Also read: What went wrong for Indian Women in the T20 series against England
