ICC World Cup 2019: One risk selectors may want to take while picking up India’s squad
Once Mark Zuckerberg, the founder, and CEO of Facebook very famously said: “the biggest risk is not taking any risk”. And that just does not just apply in the corporate world but in every sphere of our life including the game of cricket! With just a day (15th April) for the announcement of India’s 15 member squad, the selectors may just want to take a risk by picking up a completely unexpected player that may just make a big impact in the world’s biggest cricketing event this summer, the ICC World Cup 2019.
By the looks of the things, India preferred playing XI appears to very much sorted barring the never-ending No.4 conundrum and now, it’s just the matter of picking up key players with an objective to have ideal substitutions based on the match requirement or due to any unfortunate untimely injury.
In fact, for the very first time in the history, India’s pace battery appears to be extremely lethal and dare I say, par with the strong batting line up. With Jasprit Bumrah leading the way with his fast inswinging Yorkers squeezing every run along with disciplined Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami, without a doubt, this bowling attack has the potential to win the marquee event.
Having said that, it has one major drawback – they all quite similar in their styles – bowling right arm over the wicket with alike bowling speed ranging between 135KM/HR – 145 KM/HR. As you can imagine, after a while, the batsman can play them like playing against a bowling machine and does not really offer much variety for Kohli to play around with – needless to say, in a challenging situation, it can cost India a match and maybe, even a tournament.
So what option do the selectors have?
Very honestly, no one really but going back on to the subject of taking the risk, the selectors can opt for Khaleel Ahmed, the young left-arm fast bowler from the royal city of Rajasthan to spice up the Indian bowling attack. The 21-year-old player has played quite a few limited over games (8 ODIs / 9 T20Is) and though, did not set the world on fire, showed consistent improvement with every passing game.
Another aspect that works out in the favour of the player is that since he hasn’t played much international cricket, he is very much an unknown commodity even in today’s era of technology and can just surprise the batsman with his freshness.
And also, adding him to the squad will just provide India the 4th pace bowling option at the bench very much needed considering the longevity of the highly intense tournament.
Yet, picking him up for the world tournament is certainly a risk that just may go either way but is definitely something the selectors should ponder over prior to announcing India’s 15 member squad for world’s biggest cricketing event, the ICC World Cup 2019.