Final culling before the World Cup will be tougher task

Over the past year or so, India have settled into a successful ODI unit, with many players picking themselves in the squad that will be given the responsibility in February and March next year. Injuries apart, Dhoni, Kohli, Raina, Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are likely to make the pruned list. That leaves room for just three additional players in the 15, and expect stiff internal competition to fill those slots.

Axar Patel’s emergence has put Ravindra Jadeja’s place in the final fifteen under pressure. The 20-year-old spin-bowling all-rounder from Gujarat has already made a big impression with 14 wickets from nine ODIs. He also has an excellent economy rate of 4.49. Patel was the highest wicket-taker in the home ODI series against Sri Lanka with 11 scalps and had contributed with the bat as well — the final match at Ranchi being a strong case-in-point, where his support to skipper Kohli helped India whitewash the visitors.

“Hopefully if he (Patel) keeps performing like that and shows his composure, he will probably be preferred over a couple of other people in the batting order,” Kohli had said after the match. A 68 not out off 38 balls in the Deodhar Trophy semi-final against South Zone re-confirmed the youngster’s ability to play match-winning knocks with the willow.

Jadeja, on the other hand, has been a proven performer in this format with 1,691 runs and 134 wickets in 109 one-day internationals. Figures of 1/58 and 2/80 against West Indies in Kochi and Dharamsala respectively, though, suggest he has been leaking runs of late.

Odds still favour Jadeja getting a World Cup berth ahead of Patel, but things can become tricky if the selectors prefer to gamble with leg-spinner Karn Sharma, just for the sake of variety.

As far as Ambati Rayudu is concerned, he competes against Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey for the last available middle-order spot. Rayudu has been a regular in the ODI team over the past few months. He batted at No. 3 against Sri Lanka and scored his maiden hundred in the shorter format. Then, there’s his part-time off-spin, which might come in handy in the middle overs.

Uthappa has been brought back to the fold after a very successful IPL this year. The Karnataka player can bat in any position and can keep wickets. Also, his backfoot game is suitable for bouncy pitches that would be on offer in Australia. But Rayudu remains the odds-on favourite. If a reserve wicket-keeper is picked, the fight would be between Wriddhiman Saha and Sanju Samson.