ICC World Cup 2019: Why Rishabh Pant's selection could have strengthened the Indian team further

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Rishabh Pant

The countdown for the ICC World Cup 2019 has started. The 12th edition of the showpiece event will be held in England and Wales from 30th of May 2019.

All the 10 participating nations have already declared their squads for the tournament, and cricket fans across the globe are eagerly waiting for the action to begin. They have already started analysing the teams and the possible playing combinations that their favourite teams are likely to opt for during the tournament.

India have also declared their 15-member squad for the event. Although most of the selections were on expected lines, there were a few surprises also. The exclusion of Ambati Rayadu and Rishabh Pant from the final 15 was not expected.

The Indian squad for the tournament is as follows.

Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Vijay Shankar, Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, MS Dhoni (wicketkeeper),Kedar Jadhav, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami.

The Indian team will go into the tournament as one of the favourites to win it. All the Indian fans will hope that their team goes all the way and wins this coveted trophy for the third time.

But could Pant's selection in the 15-member squad have made the Indian team even stronger? There are a lot of arguments that suggest exactly that.

Pant has been one of the most improved cricketers in the last two years. In this year's IPL, he was one of the biggest match-winners for Delhi Capitals, who went on to reach the playoffs.

Pant has also been prolific for the national side in Test matches, although his ODI record is not that impressive. That said, he has played only 5 ODIs till date, and many believe it is too early to pass a judgement on his limited overs capabilities.

It is mainly because of his lack of experience that Pant was left out, and the more experienced Dinesh Karthik selected in the 15-member World Cup squad instead. But without Pant, the Indian team will miss that spark that is needed to win global tournaments.

Considering Pant's potential and immense match-winning capability, he could have been the X- factor, for the Indian middle order. He could have been entrusted the responsibility of keeping the scoreboard ticking even when a couple of wickets have fallen, thus allowing MS Dhoni to play his natural game and settle in before launching a counter-attack.

Pant's selection would certainly have made the middle order look a lot less wobbly than it does right now - at least in terms of scoring rate. It's hard not to think the selectors missed a trick by leaving him out.

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