With the opening fixture of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 a fortnight away, the gamification is already at its peak. All teams are set to play each other once in the group stage, which means that quite a few gruelling encounters are in store.
Two teams widely tipped as the title favourites are England and India. The Indian team, led by Virat Kohli, is aiming to win their third ODI World Cup. Also, India head coach Ravi Shastri is confident about his side and believes that they have enough ammunition in the ranks to go all the way and clinch the trophy.
He also said that the side will be extremely flexible and combinations will purely be based on the conditions. Speaking about the number 4 position, which has been a topic of debates and deliberations, Shastri said that according to him, there is no one player for that particular spit and it will be a horses for courses selection.
“We are a flexible team. It’s horses for courses, we have got enough ammunition. We have got enough players who can bat at 4. So, I am not really worried about that,” Shastri told Cricketnext in an interview.
“I think we have got all bases covered. Last thing you want is passengers on the tour. You want to have in those 15 players … who can play anytime, at any given time. If there is a major injury to a fast bowler, there will be a replacement almost straight away,” he further added.
Kedar Jadhav, who has become an important member of Kohli’s side, picked up an injury during the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL), but the coach is not too worried and wants to wait before making any decision.
“In fact I am totally blanked out from that. When the flight takes off on the 22nd, (May) we will see who are the 15 on that and just take it from there. Luckily in Kedar’s case, there is no fracture so we will wait and watch. There is still time so it should be ok,” Shastri said.
Jadhav is no stranger to injuries. In fact, the 34-year-old batsman had suffered a grade 2 hamstring in the opening game of IPL-11 in 2018 which forced him to miss the entire tournament as well as the subsequent ODI series in Ireland and England.
He had a very modest time in IPL-12, scoring only 162 runs in 14 games this season with a strike-rate of 95.85.
