Openers, all-rounders, pace: India’s World Cup puzzle has no fixed pieces | Cricket News
With the 2027 ODI World Cup some fourteen months away, India face an uncomfortable question: how ready are they for a tournament they haven’t won since 2011? Going by the evidence, not very. This remains a team yet to settle its best XI, and the uncertainty has begun to show in the performances themselves. None of this is a talent problem. This remains one of the deepest squads in world cricket. The risk is self-inflicted: a side this talented undone by its own indecision rather than by an opponent. The recent series in England exposed a side still short on balance, and further still from identifying the core group it will carry into South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia before the southern hemisphere summer sets in. That imbalance isn’t only about personnel. Few players in this set-up are certain of their spot or their role, and that uncertainty runs from the top of the order to the bottom. The danger is that a muddle like this rarely stays confined to the XI. It breeds an insecurity …









