The Indian team have been convincing in their ODI performances in the recent past and the different players have clicked to a T for Virat Kohli and the management.
As such, they are being considered as one of the favourites for the upcoming World Cup, but the biggest question revolves around the squad which will fly across to England.
Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir, who was an integral member of the 2011 World Cup winning campaign, has picked his 'ideal' 15-member Indian squad for the upcoming 2019 World Cup which begins on May 30.
The biggest headlines from the picked squad were the omission of Ravindra Jadeja and Rishabh Pant. However, the southpaw has included Ravichandran Ashwin and KL Rahul in the squad.
What do you make of @GautamGambhir's ?? squad for #CWC19? pic.twitter.com/hxNUwHAuQn
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) January 28, 2019
The inclusion of Ashwin is surprising primarily because he has not been part of India's limited overs plans for quite some time now as the management has preferred to play Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal as the spinners.
Ashwin included, no place for Rishabh Pant
"I think R Ashwin is someone who we should always consider because we are looking at conditions in England during that time of the year. Wickets could be flat and worn out. So a finger-spinner can be effective with the ball as well," Gambhir said.
Gautam Gambhir's Indian squad for World Cup 2019: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav.
"Look New Zealand is a strong ODI side. When you play like this against them, it gives you a lot of confidence and when you play them next, it will give us a lot of confidence. That's usually how international cricket works," captain Virat Kohli said at the end of the 3rd match.
"If you play them in the first game of World Cup, then these things (series win) matters but if they have had a great tournament before they play us, the series is not a guarantee that we will have an upper hand against them in the World Cup," he added.
