In limited overs cricket, India has been dominating for a long time now. They are numero uno in the test rankings, and are ranked number two in both ODIs and t20s. As far as limited overs cricket is concerned, the main contributing factors have been India's top order in batting, Bumrah and the wrist spinners in the bowling department.

There is a trend we have been seeing in the last 2-3 years, our batting is over dependent on the top 3. Rohit, Shikhar, and Virat have been phenomenal and there is no doubt to the fact that they have carried the team's batting on their shoulders. Virat averaged a freakish 133 in the year 2018, and Rohit and Shikhar were around 73 and 50 respectively. While that is a great sight from India's perspective, it also signified the incompetency of the middle order. One of the problems with middle order is that they have been playing musical chair with the number 4 and number 6 spot, with Dhoni slotted in between them. They started the year with Ajinkya Rahane in South Africa at number 4, and over the year, tried various players like Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Kartik, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Rishab Pant, although it seems like they had found an ideal candidate in Ambati Rayudu by the end of Windies series. Even at number 6, with injuries to Kedar Jhadav, India did try some of the players mentioned above.

So, in a situation where the top order fails, they are left wanting. Something like that happened in the first ODI against Australia, where Shikhar, Virat and Rayudu were back to the pavilion in no time, and Rohit Sharma nearly carried India through. The batsmen in line for the middle order spots are Rayudu, Kartik, Dhoni, Pant, and Jhadav. Most of them have decent finishing abilities and they need to revolve around Dhoni to not only make meagre contributions, but win matches on their own if the top order gets blown off. Rayudu and Jhadav seem to be the men who might eventually make the two vacant spots their own once India set their feet in England. As far as Dhoni is concerned, he desperately needs to deliver as Rishab Pant is breathing down his neck big time after his exploits in the test series Down Under. He needs to improve his strike rate considerably as the pitches in England are likely to be high scoring. We, as fans want Dhoni to get his finishing abilities back on track as we want him to hit the World Cup winning six, for one final time.