4 Veterans who have sealed their spot ahead of Cricket World Cup 2019

#4 MS Dhoni

With 193 runs from 3 innings, Dhoni walked away with the man of the series during the ODI's in Australia.

MS Dhoni's downslide really started one year after he gave up his limited-overs captaincy. Already retired from the Test format, Dhoni was the captain of India's ODI and T20 teams till December 2016. Just before the start of India's first international series in 2017 against England, Dhoni announced that he won't captain the team anymore. Virat Kohli became India's captain in all formats since then.

Dhoni did a decent job that year, registering his tenth ODI century, his first T20 international fifty and providing great assistance to the emerging spin bowling pair of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. However, 2018 was not a great year for Dhoni. Barring a second T20 fifty in February, Dhoni could not reach a fifty in any other ODI or T20 in 2018.

Scoring just 275 runs in 13 innings, Dhoni averaged just 25 runs in 2018 with questions being raised over his inclusion in India's World Cup plans. He was also omitted from the T20 squads against West Indies and Australia at the end of the year, which made many of his fans and supporters anxious.

However, inclusion in India's limited overs matches in Australia and New Zealand in 2019 brought some relief to Dhoni and his fans. Chasing a huge target of 289 in the first ODI of the year, Dhoni scored his first half-century in more than a year. He followed it up with a brilliant match-finishing fifty in the next and a match-winning 87 not out in the series decider while batting at number four.

Dhoni has now sealed his position as India's primary wicket-keeper batsman and has also proved his flexibility in India's batting order ahead of the World Cup.