The fervour is very much in the air as the IPL is going to kick off on Saturday with the inaugural match between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Over a billion cricket fans from all over the world are waiting in eagerness for the most popular T20 league to get underway.

Rishab Pant, Ambati Rayadu, Ravindra Jadeja and Vijay Shankar Source

Though the date on which the playoffs and finals will be held is not yet announced, it looks like the final match will be played somewhere towards the end of the second week of May. Meanwhile, the selectors of various cricket playing nations are busy finalising their squads for the World Cup. Each of the ten participating nations will have to announce a squad of fifteen players one month before the beginning of the ICC World Cup which will kick off on the 30th of May this summer in England and Wales.

The Indian selectors will be scratching their heads over the final fifteen that will board the flight to the UK. The reason for that has been too much experimentation over the last two years in the middle order batting positions by the Indian team management. The constant chopping and changing meant that none of the prospective players got a chance to stake a firm place in those batting positions. The excuse of the team management for trying out the various players was that they are trying to put together the perfect fifteen for the World Cup.

Hardik Pandya, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni are certain to be on the flight to the UK this May Source

Though Virat Kohli said that they are pretty sure of the combination that will go to England this English summer and that only one place may have to be discussed things do not look that clear for those looking at it from the outside. Over the past, just more than two years since the start of the bilateral ODI series between India and Australia, the Indian team management have tried out seventeen different batsmen between the positions of numbers four and six from Yuvraj Singh to Ajinkya Rahane.

Among the players, the batters that are in contention now for these slots are Ambati Raydu, Kedar Jadhav, Vijay Shankar, Hardik Pandya, Rishab Pant, MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja to a certain extent. Rayadu, despite his good averages, does not seem to have convinced the Indian think tank that he is fit to play at number four. Kedar Jadhav and MS Dhoni have been shifted between these positions probably as and when the situation demanded. Dinesh Kartik being overlooked in the recent matches, Rishab Pant looks like a certainty in the final fifteen as the second wicketkeeper though at which position he is likely to bat is not certain.

Kedar Jadhav impressed as a finisher batting playing along with Kohli and Dhoni Source

Vijay Shankar has batted well when his opportunities came but his bowling performances have left a lot to be desired. What the selectors will be looking for is whether he along with Kedar Jadhav can among themselves bowl the ten overs of the fifth bowler. Shankar bowls at a sub-130 kilometres speed that is quite batsmen friendly. Will he be able to exploit the English conditions and get a bit of swing to baffle the batsmen? Will he be able to contribute towards the death overs and get a bit of reverse swing? Is he an able allrounder who could take the place of an injury prone Hardik Pandya?

Where does Ravindra Jadeja fit in the scheme of things? He hasn’t scored many runs while batting nor has he looked like a bowler who can turn the game around. But he has been consistently miserly in giving away runs to the opposition when he had the opportunity to bowl. Kedar Jadhav with his sidearm bowling action can still prove difficult to teams other than New Zealand and Australia who have faced him before.

Shikhar Dhawan along with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are the best top batting order in the world Source

With Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli, India undoubtedly has the best top three batsmen in the world. One or the other, sometimes two of them, has performed consistently to see that either the team puts up a good total or achieve success while chasing. It is the number four, five and six positions that are still in doubt as far as the Indian batting is concerned. The Indian think tank will have to look at the performances of the players in the IPL to decide the final fifteen in the Indian side which will fly to the UK.

Cricket / middle order

India's conundrum for the World Cup - the middle order

India's conundrum for the World Cup - the middle order

India's conundrum for the World Cup - the middle order