World Cup 2019: India in a strong position half-way through the tournament

The ICC World Cup 2019 has crossed its half way mark now as India and New Zealand have dominated the league with top performances. India, in particular have three wins from their contested encounters, while the game against New Zealand was washed out.

India's strongest suit is the fact that the top three have enjoyed a great run in the tournament thus far. Rohit Sharma has two centuries from three games while skipper Virat Kohli has two half-centuries from three games.

KL Rahul's promotion to the top of the order in the absence of Shikhar Dhawan worked well as the stylish opener stroked a patient 57 to get India off to a positive start against Pakistan.

On the bowling front, Jasprit Bumrah has not had much of an impact with just five wickets but has hit the right line and length, forcing batsmen to go after the other bowlers that has resulted in a flurry of wickets.

As Virat Kohli's men head into the second half of the league stages, here is a look at the Men in Blue's campaign thus far.

A gruelling yet successful first-half campaign

Compared to the unbeaten Kiwis, Virat Kohli’s men look to be in a commanding position as they have already faced tough opponents in South Africa and Australia, New Zealand and arch-rivals Pakistan. Considering the way the matches have gone about in this edition, only England can be considered as a challenge in the rest of their league matches.

India's performance has remained clinical throughout the tournament and the biggest advantage for India is the fact that all the three departments have looked in fine touch.

Skipper Kohli has been hugely successful in marshalling his troops as well, rotating bowlers as per the requirement and shuffling the batting order to bring in batsmen at a time it suits their game.

Strong batting performances from top-order

One of the biggest positives for India is the form of the batting unit. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are enjoying a purple patch already and with KL Rahul finding some form against arch-rivals Pakistan, the top three have looked in top touch.

Though Shikhar Dhawan has been ruled out of the competition owing to an injury, Rahul's solid knock will undoubtedly infuse confidence in him to make a mark in this tournament.

Rohit Sharma is in red-hot form

Rohit has been in a great nick till now in this tournament. In India’s first match against South Africa at Southampton, he played a very measured innings to anchor India's chase. Chasing a modest target of 227, Rohit took his time, blunted the threat posed by the South African quicks and made his way to a 144-ball unbeaten 122.

Against Australia, Rohit made a positive start and got to 57 before throwing his wicket away. Yet, in that game, Shikhar Dhawan's century and 82 from Virat Kohli took India to 352/5 from 50 overs.

However, against Pakistan, Rohit was back in his element as he smashed his way to a whirlwind century, punishing bad deliveries to score 140 from just 113 balls which helped India to post a huge total of 336.

Captain Kohli, though surprisingly not among the centurions, has played his part. He scored 82 against Australia and 77 against Pakistan. During those knocks he allowed the big hitting all-rounder Hardik Pandya to blossom, as the all-rounder donned the role of an aggressor to perfection which helped propel the score after the solid foundation laid by top order batsmen.

Impactful Bowling

In the bowling department, all the players have had a role to play in the three games thus far. New ball exponents Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar have been successful in finding their rhythm and are among the wickets. Now, with Bhuvneshwar out for a few games, Mohammad Shami will have the responsibility of sharing the new ball.

Indian bowlers have come good throughout the tournament

Spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yajuvendra Chahal have played their part well especially in the crucial second power play. Chahal took four wickets against South Africa and Kuldeep was simply excellent against Pakistan, especially the way he cleaned up Babar Azam with his magical delivery.

Hardik Pandya has fully justified his role as an all-rounder. Though he couldn’t get wickets in the first two matches, he was very effective against arch-rivals Pakistan, removing middle-order batsmen Mohammed Hafeez and Shoaib Mallik in consecutive deliveries.

Apart from batting and bowling well, the fielders have also done extremely well to ensure that the bowlers are not let down and the crucial runs are saved. The catching has been top notch and barring a couple of tough chances, India's ground fielding and catching have received a face-lift.

With the tough matches warming India up well enough to shape the team ahead of the knockout stages, Virat Kohli will hope that his men maintain the winning spree and go all the way to claim the trophy.