3 Big questions for the Indian team heading into the 2019 World Cup

ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 - One Year To Go

The ICC Cricket World Cup in 2019 is just a few months away from now. All the teams have started gearing up for the mega-event by trying different players to figure out what suits best for them.

India has always performed in big tournaments. For a piece of stat, India has won 34 games and lost just 8 in ICC Tournaments since the beginning of the 2011 World Cup. Without an iota of doubt, they will head into the 2019 event as one of the favorites.

However, that does not mean they don't have any chinks in their armor. There are quite a few issues plaguing the current ODI setup of India. With 20-odd games still to go before their opening game at the World Cup, they would definitely like to find an answer to these 3 questions:

#3 Who will be batting at No. 4?

Australia v India: Carlton Mid ODI Tri Series - Game 5

The obvious one! This problem has tormented India right from the conclusion of the 2015 World Cup. Ajinkya Rahane got the first go at the spot, and to be fair to him, he improved as time went on as evident by his returns in the 2015 South Africa series at home and the beginning of the 2016 ODI series in Australia.

However, he got injured midway during that ODI series against Australia and from then on, no one has been able to cement his spot at number 4. Manish Pandey showed some promise, Yuvraj Singh came back into the team for a while, MS Dhoni too played a few innings at No. 4 and recently, KL Rahul got a chance in England.

The solidity of India's top 3 often has left the others to do very little, but its high time that the team finds a suitable No. 4. As evident by India's first game in the Asia Cup, Ambati Rayudu looks set to be the next one to get a chance at No. 4.

Rayudu can prove to be a very handy batsman at that position given his solidity, experience in the domestic arena and the IPL and ability to rotate the strike and counter-attack when needed.

Whatever might be the case, the team needs to find a suitable No. 4 as soon as possible and also give him an ample number of games to get accustomed to the role. Ambati Rayudu, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, as well as proven domestic and franchise-cricket performers, such as the likes of Rishabh Pant, Suresh Raina, Krunal Pandya and Shubman Gill can be given a go in the near future.