The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup is less than three months away to begin. Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has recently revealed his predicted Indian squad for the tournament.
England and Wales will host the 12th edition of the Cricket World Cup from 30 May to 14 July 2019. The two-time World Cup-winning side India will begin their World Cup journey on 5 June against South Africa at Southampton.
At present, the Indian national cricket team is in an excellent form, and they are standing at no.2 position in the ODI ranking. Many experts have already claimed that India will begin the upcoming World Cup journey as a favourite.
Now, the 2011 World Cup-winning hero Gautam Gambhir has picked up the 16-member Indian side for the upcoming World Cup. He has revealed it in the Star Sports channel. In that predicted squad, most of the choices are expected, except the reserve options. He has some surprising choices for the reserve options.
Surprise in the spin-bowling option
Currently, the Indian wrist-spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal are dominating in the limited-overs cricket. There is no doubt of their availability in the upcoming World Cup.
However, Gautam Gambhir has a surprising choice in the third spin-bowling option. He feels that the senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin will be India’s third spinner in the World Cup. In reality, Ravichandran Ashwin hasn’t played any international limited-overs matches since July 2017. In spite of that, Gautam Gambhir has selected him for his experiences.
However, the spin-bowling all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is not in the squad. In the all-rounder option, Gautam Gambhir selected Hardik Pandya, Kedar Jadhav along with Vijay Shankar.
Surprise in the reserve wicket-keeping option
Gautam Gambhir has also come with the surprise name in the reserve wicket-keeping option. While MS Dhoni has remained as the main wicketkeeper of the national team, Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik both have missed from this squad. Rather than, Gautam Gambhir has chosen KL Rahul as the reserve-wicketkeeper for the upcoming World Cup.
KL Rahul is an occasional wicketkeeper, who has no wicket-keeping experiences in the international career. However, he is playing both as a wicketkeeper and as an opening batsman for his present IPL team Kings XI Punjab (KXIP).
Gautam Gambhir also believes that KL Rahul can also play as the reserve opening batsman. While both Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan are in the squad as the main openers, he believes that the team management can also use KL Rahul as the back-up opener.
Fourth pacer
Gautam Gambhir has selected Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami as the top three pacers of the national team. Talking about the fourth pacer, the former Indian opener named Umesh Yadav.
Gautam Gambhir’s predicted Indian squad for the upcoming World Cup: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Vijay Shankar.