It has been a couple of days since the team was announced for the world cup and without a doubt, 2 players will still be having a hard time coming to terms with their omission, Rishabh Pant and Ambati Rayudu.

Let's start with Pant. Undoubtedly, one of the most talented and upcoming players in India and touted to be the next big thing in Indian cricket. So how can you leave such a player out of the world cup team? With talent, you need consistency and temperament and that is where he misses out. On his given day, he will win you matches from the most unlikeliest positions but the question is how often can he do that? His keeping skills have been reported as the major reason why DK was preferred over him. Now this seems difficult to digest given he is the preferred keeper in test matches and keeping in tests is considered most challenging. Perhaps his missed chances with the bat and gloves in the home ODIs against Australia cost him the berth. His temperament has been questionable too as we saw in a few IPL matches where he tried to go for the glory shots way too often, only to put his side at the brink of defeat. It must be noted that he is only 21 years old and has a spectacular career ahead of him. Temperament and consistency will only get better as he plays more games and I am pretty sure he will play at least 2-3 world cups for India as he is the future of Indian cricket.

Now, let's address the elephant in the room. Not a lot of people can claim to have their luck as bad as Rayudu can. A few months ago, he had well and truly sealed the number four spot and Kohli had declared that way earlier in October last year. So, what happened? Form deserted him at the worst possible time and it was that home Australia series which proved to be disastrous for him. Even in New Zealand and Australia he had made those crucial contributions, with the 90 in New Zealand probably the innings of his lifetime. His dip in form was met with the rise of Vijay Shankar who is a solid middle order batsman and also provides you with a few overs apart from being a live wire in the field. But having said that, Rayudu had also proved his mettle in challenging conditions in New Zealand and he had shown consistency except for the last series. You can't really drop a player on the basis of one bad series and that too in favor of a player who has played less than 10 ODIs. Undoubtedly he has every right to feel sad about his exclusion from the team which he truly deserved to be a part of.

With that being said, the doors have not closed for both the players as far as this world cup is concerned as an injury to any player can mean either of the two replacing that player straightaway as said by the chief selector.