ICC World Cup 2019: 3 players unlikely to grab the 4th seamer spot for India

#1 Khaleel Ahmed

The southpaw did show glimpses of his talent but has not been consistent enough

India had stopped searching for their fourth seamer with the emergence of Khaleel Ahmed, as the left-arm bowler showed a lot of promise and character. He was even considered the successor of Zaheer Khan, but he hasn't lived up to the expectations.

Khaleel had a dream debut in this format when he picked up 3 wickets for just 48 runs in his 10 overs and helped his team to a win. He performed well even in the following matches by taking 8 wickets in 5 matches, picking at least one wicket in every match. His economy rate was also acceptable as he usually kept it to about 6 or below it.

However, the problem was that these performances were coming against teams which had relatively weak batting lineups. His wickets were against Afghanistan, Hong Kong and West Indies.

West Indies do have a decent lineup but when Khaleel was playing them, they were not playing to their full strength and had some players making their debuts.

The problem arose for Khaleel when he played against New Zealand and Australia and failed to pick up even a single wicket. What made matters worse for him is that he went for quite a few runs in both these matches.

It soon became clear to Virat Kohli and Co that Khaleel wasn't ready to face the best batsmen. And with the World Cup having some talented hitters in the fray, Khaleel's chances of making it to the squad are quite dismal.