Sourav Ganguly refrains from picking an all-rounder for the Indian World Cup squad

India don’t have much time left ahead of the ICC 2019 World Cup, which is scheduled to start on Thursday, May 30, as they only have three One Day Internationals to get their combination in place. India are next scheduled to play the third game of the five-match home ODI series against Australia at the JSCA Stadium in Ranchi, which also happens to be MS Dhoni’s hometown.

In the meantime, the Men in Blue are still pondering about who should be their all-rounders for the mega event in England and Wales. The contenders for the same are Hardik Pandya, Vijay Shankar, and Ravindra Jadeja. While, Pandya, who is currently recovering from a lower back injury, is most likely to go to the UK, a toss-up is likely to take place between Jadeja and Shankar.

In the meantime, Sourav Ganguly, the former Indian captain, reckons that Jadeja shouldn’t be included for the multi-nation tournament. He also praised Vijay Shankar. “Ravindra Jadeja should not be in the World Cup team. Vijay Shankar bowled beautifully in the Nagpur match. I think Vijay deserves his World Cup spot,” Ganguly was quoted as saying in Hindustan Times.

Jadeja and Shankar’s recent performances

Shankar has been exceptional of late. The Tamil Nadu-born all-rounder made his ODI debut against Australia in the latter’s own backyard. He played one knock of substance against New Zealand that bailed India out of jail from a precarious point. Recently, Shankar also showed great skills with the ball in hand as he defended 11 runs in the last over in Nagpur, picking up two wickets, that included that of Marcus Stoinis.

Jadeja, on the contrary, has been a tad lacklustre in the same series. In two matches thus far, he could pick up only one wicket, on strips, which had a significant amount of assistance for the spinners. With the bat in hand, the 30-year-old from Saurashtra scored 21 in the last encounter, forming a crucial stand with Virat Kohli.

[interaction id=”5c7f6bbcf115e055e6e0fbe6″]

Get the latest Cricket News and updates, Match Predictions, Fantasy Cricket Tips and lots more on CricTracker.com.