Five uncapped players with a chance of getting into the Indian squad for the 2015 ODI World Cup
Preparations for next year’s 50-over World Cup in Australia & New Zealand are getting underway for India with the start of the ODI series in England. Due to India’s numerous problems in Test cricket outside the subcontinent, the fact that India, of late, have had a thin time of it in ODI cricket outside Asia has been largely overlooked. They didn’t manage to win even a single ODI during their recent tours to South Africa and New Zealand, losing the two series 2-0 and 4-0 respectively. The likes of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan have been found wanting against two new balls at the start of an ODI innings. Suresh Raina still remains uncertain against the short delivery and the spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been carted around the park in conditions, to be fair, unfavourable to spin bowling.Considering the travails of a few of the players just mentioned, the Indian selectors would be well-advised to look at a few relatively fresh faces who have done well in domestic cricket and on ‘A’ tours recently. Some might argue that it is too late to try out new players given there is such less time remaining for the World Cup to get underway. But with India having 13 ODIs scheduled before the mega event, there is still enough time, in my opinion, for some of the uncapped players to make a good impression on the selectors and earn a berth in the World Cup squad. By picking the likes of Akshar Patel and Parvez Rasool for India’s ODI tour of Bangladesh in June, the selectors, to their credit, have already shown that they aren’t afraid of fast-tracking young, inexperienced players into the senior squad.Here are 5 uncapped players, as on August 26, 2014, who have a chance of getting into India’s World Cup squad:
#5 Manan Vohra
An opener with immense stroke-making ability, Manan Vohra was part of the Indian squad for the 2012 U19 World Cup but missed out due to injury. It was a huge setback for Vohra, especially as he could not be a part of what was a victorious Indian side. But he recovered quickly from that setback, and he went on to have a good 2013 IPL season for Kings XI Punjab. That led to him being one of two players, the other being David Miller, to be retained by his franchise for the 2014 season, putting huge pressure on Vohra.
He was, however, shielded for the first few games of the season, which turned out to be a wise move as he finished the season with a bang, scoring 324 runs in just 8 matches at an average of 40.50 and a strike-rate of 139.05, thereby helping take the Kings XI all the way to the final. He was, then, picked in the India A squad for the recently-concluded quadrangular one-day series in Australia, where he once again showed flashes of his abundant talent and finished up among the side’s top 5 run-scorers.