ICC World Cup 2019: 3 players unlikely to grab the 4th seamer spot for India
The most prestigious cricket tournament - World Cup 2019 - is right around the corner, and will take centre-stage the moment IPL 2019 gets over. India's chief selector MSK Prasad has announced that India's squad will be finalized on 15th April 2019, and there's a lot of speculation regarding a few spots in the team.
India's core squad had been decided quite a while ago, but there remains a bit of uncertainty about who will take up the role of the fourth seamer. They have tried quite a number of players but have been unable to find someone who can complement Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah.
The World Cup will be held in England, where the conditions are suited to seam and not to spin. India have three decided pacers going in the form of Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar and Hardik Pandya. However, Pandya can be quite unreliable at times and it would be safe to go with an extra pacer.
Mohammed Shami seems to have impressed the captain and the selectors a fair bit, and has a good chance of going to England. At the same time, there are a few bowlers who have not done their chances any good with their performances.
Here is a look at three players who are most likely going to miss the plane to England:
#3 Umesh Yadav
Umesh Yadav was one of the first bowlers in contention for the place of the fourth seamer. His special skill is that he generates pace that most bowlers in India don't. However, in light of his recent performances, it would be safe to say that he is not a part of India's World Cup plans anymore.
Umesh last played an ODI for India in 2018 and has been left out of the squad ever since. He neither has the ability to take a lot of wickets nor be economical. In the four matches that he played in 2018, he took only four wickets and that too mostly of lower order batsmen.
Moreover, he leaked runs at a rate of more than 6 in two matches and more than 7 in the other two. That kind of economy rate is not acceptable in modern cricket.
Umesh's bowling in the death is even worse as he failed to defend 14 runs off the last over against Australia recently. With these kind of performances it would be fair to say that he will not make it to the plane to England.