Asia Cup 2018: Positives, Grey Areas and Ratings For Team India

The Grey areas

The form of the Indian middle-order batsmen

Ambati Rayudu made a decent contribution

When India started their Asia Cup campaign, the main headache for the team management was the combination of their middle-order batsmen. Now, after playing 5 matches in the Asia Cup, it is still back to square one. The management has not found any solution for the vacant No 4 position.

Ambati Rayudu played in all the 5 matches and scored 175 runs at an average of 58. But he failed in the all-important final.

For his decent efforts, Rayudu gets 6 out of 10.

Dinesh Karthik had a wonderful opportunity to impress the selectors. But he failed to set the Asai Cup on fire. Karthik managed to score 146 runs at an average of 48. At no stage did he look like dominating the bowling.

Dinesh Karthik hasn't impressed the selectors

Dinesh Karthik gets 5 out of 10.

Dhoni, the middle-order batsman was completely out of sorts. He struggled both against pace and spin. His Test match-like strike rate did not help the team’s cause either.

Dhoni was out of sorts with the bat

Dhoni the batsman gets 3 out of 10.

No back up for Bhuvi and Bumrah

Khaleel Ahmed was impressive

This Asia Cup has not produced any backup bowlers for Bhuvi and Bumrah. Khaleel Ahmed was impressive in the two matches that he has played. But Deepak Chahar and Siddarth Kaul were all over the place.

No place for KL Rahul in the Indian scheme of things

K.L. Rahul - Not in the Indian scheme of things

Rahul cannot bat below No 3 but that is where the vacancy lies. At the end of the Asia Cup, the team management are left wondering how to accommodate K.L. Rahul in the playing XI.

To sum up, there were a lot of positives for Team India in the recently concluded Asia Cup. At the same time, there were a lot of questions which were left unanswered. There were a lot of perennial problems for which no solutions were found. The area of strength for the team has become much stronger and the weakness has become much more pronounced.