India has been identified as one of the favorites to win the Worldcup this year along with England. Their record has been very good in One day cricket leading up to the world cup.
One of the key strengths for India in this period of time has been the contribution of the top order. Since the 2015 world cup, India's top 3 batsmen Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, and Virat Kohli have been extremely prolific, scoring over 60% of the team's total runs which is the highest percentage compared to the other teams.
Although this statistic is very impressive, it also means that India relies heavily on the top three batsmen to perform well. Hence with the world cup coming up, it is important for the three batsmen to be in good form.
However, in this years IPL, they have been underperforming so far. Rohit Sharma's scores so far have been 14,48,32 and 13, while Dhawan has got 51,16,30 and 12 at a very low strike rate of 116.92. Virat Kohli has also had a very poor tournament so far by his standards with scores of 6,46,3,23 at a strike rate of 98.73. These are not very good signs for India.
Apart from them, other key players such as Bhuvneshwar Kumar has picked up just 2 wickets in the 4 games played and has gone at an economy rate of 9.60, while Kuldeep Yadav has also managed to get just 2 wickets in the 3 matches at an economy rate of 9.10.
Five players who are expected to play in the XI for India at the world cup have been in poor form. They are not yet sure about the no 4 position as well with Rayudu continuing his poor form in the IPL.
Fans will be hoping that the Indian players get back to form before they get to the world cup. On the positive side, Bumrah, Chahal, Dhoni, and Hardik Pandya have looked in good form. Some of the contenders like Vijay Shankar has also made use of his opportunities so far in the IPL.
