5 problems India must address before the 2019 World Cup

#3 Reserve pacers

This is one series that has exposed the Indian bowling attack. India went into the series without their two best bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Bumrah was ruled out of the series due to a thumb injury while Bhuvneshwar was struggling with a back problem.

India got to test their bench. Siddarth Kaul and Umesh Yadav got opportunities in the first two games and both of them were under-par. Both of them had economies of more than 6.5 and while Umesh picked up 3 wickets, Kaul went wicketless in both his outings. Shardul Thakur got a game in the final ODI and was the only Indian bowler to pick up a wicket.

Bhuvneshwar did play in the last ODI but looked rusty and ineffective. Hence, India missed their premier fast bowlers dearly, both in the powerplay and at the death. In every game, England got off to flying starts and needed to be pulled back. In fact, in the second ODI, despite having England at 240/6 after 42 overs, they allowed them to get away and get to 322.

India were dependent on their spinners to get the breakthroughs and control the game. But that might not happen every game.

India will need to manage the workloads of Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar carefully and they will hope that their two premier pacers are in full flow, come the World Cup.