Like all the other teams in the world, the Indians too are looking for the right combination that will help them win the ICC World Cup 2019 trophy which will be contested in England and Wales later this year. With the quadrennial tournament in mind, there will be a lot of shuffling of players in the international teams in the lead up to the 30th of May when the tournament kicks off at The Oval in London. The Indians are currently in New Zealand to play the Kiwis.

Coming in the wake of a very successful tour of Australia, where all their players played well and some of them performed exceptionally, the Indian team will be in good spirits. There were some hiccups on the tour Down under when a couple of players were injured and were not available for selection. Soon after the team for the ODI’s in both Australia and New Zealand was announced, Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul got embroiled in controversy back home and had to return to India. They are suspended from playing cricket for the time being but the BCCI promptly named Vijay Shankar and Shubhman Gill as replacements for them.

My XI for the first ODI against New Zealand will be as follows:

Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill

Openers

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan do usually open the batting for India in the ODIs and they have been one of the most successful pairs for the country. But the Indians will do well to give young Shuman Gill a chance to show his mettle in the first ODI itself. He has spent the best part of two months in New Zealand in the past year playing the Under19 ICC World Cup and with the India A team playing ODIs. In the Under 19 tournament he was the second highest run (372 runs at an average of 104) scorer for India who won the world cup and was adjudged the Player of the Tournament. So my choice of openers will be Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill.

Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav

Middle order

Virat Kohli naturally selects himself at number three in the batting order simply because there is no better batsman in the game today in any form of cricket one can think of. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has batted beautifully in the ODI’s in Australia, particularly after he came in the number four position in the second and the third ODIs. If he is going to play for India in the World Cup, I would let him play in that position for all the remaining matches that India are going to play. Kedar Jadhav has played well to finish the last match against the Aussies. He showed that he had the power to accelerate if need be to finish matches. He is my number five in the batting order.

Dinesh Kartik, Vijay Shankar and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar

Lower middle order

Dinesh Kartik and Vijay Shankar will be the next two batsmen to come in. Dinesh Kartik is in good form as he showed when he helped Dhoni finish the second ODI against Australia. Vijay Shankar, an all-rounder, has been sent in as a replacement for the beleaguered Hardik Pandya and deserves a second chance to prove himself. He did bowl pretty well in Australia in the one ODI that he played but did not get a chance to bat.

Yazuvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep Yadav

Bowlers

With India having enough batting strength and since Bhuvaneshwar Kumar is not exactly a rabbit with the bat he comes in at number eight. Mohammed Shami who has bowled well throughout India’s tour of Australia will be the other pacer. I would drop Ravindra Jadeja for a change and include both Yajuvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. With Chahal bowling orthodox leg spin and Yadav bowling his chinamen it should give the New Zealand batsmen something to think about.

So my India XI for the first ODI against New Zealand would be:

Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Vijay Shankar, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Yajuvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav