3 fringe players who could make their ODI debut for India in 2019
As a few of India's ODI middle order batsmen are in their 30s right now, they may not be in the reckoning for the next edition of the World Cup in 2023.
Former Indian skipper MS Dhoni will in all likelihood bid adieu to the game after the culmination of the upcoming World Cup, as he would be 38 by then. Players like Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik and Ambati Rayudu are currently 33, and they will be 37 by the time next edition of the mega tournament approaches.
After every edition of the World Cup, the outlook of all the teams is typically reinvigorated. Team combinations are comprehensively analyzed and necessary adjustments are made to kick-start the preparations for the next World Cup.
After the culmination of the 2011 World Cup, stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh slowly faded away from the ODI set-up, after having served their nation successfully for well over a decade. Their departures marked the end of an era in the Indian cricket team and ushered the dawn of a new era.
This led to an influx of some new players into the team like Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja, to name a few. And the current captain and vice-captain duo - Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma - have emerged as the flag bearers for the next-gen cricketers.
Similar to the situation in 2011, India might be forced to make some changes to their team because of the departure of some of the long-standing players and the legendary Dhoni after the conclusion of the 2019 WC. Here, we take a look at three promising youngsters who might debut for India in 2019 as the preparations for the 2023 World Cup commence.
#3 Shubman Gill
The 19-year-old Shubman Gill was the vice-captain of the Indian Under-19 team which won the 2018 U-19 World Cup. He even won the Player of the Tournament award due to his consistent performances throughout.
After a successful World Cup campaign, Gill had a decent IPL season with the KKR team. His persistent exploits in domestic cricket and youth cricket then earned him a berth in the India A squad for the series in New Zealand.
In his first-class career so far, Gill has played 7 matches and scored 897 runs at an astonishing average of 81.54 with a career-high score of 268.
Though he is still very young, Gill is seen by many as the next breakout star in the Indian cricket circles. The appetite he has shown for scoring big in the youth matches as well as in the domestic matches he has played so far is simply remarkable.
Gill could well turn out to be an enduring solution for India's ever-persistent number 4 position conundrum.