World Cup 2019: Virat Kohli’s opportunity to live the dream after 11 long years

In March 2008, Virat Kohli led U-19 India cricket team to a World Cup glory! Back then, he would have only dreamt to lead Team India once again into the biggest cricketing event – ‘ICC Cricket World Cup’. Over 11 years later, his dream will eventually come true this summer, when he will march his troops coincidentally against the very same opponent, South Africa that he conquered to win the title back then.

Historically, India’s batting unit has always been regarded as one of the finest in the world and fortunately, once again, India’s batting line up looks extremely solid. With Rohit Sharma and ‘Gabbar" Shikhar Dhawan to start the show, followed by Virat Kohli, arguably the ‘best batsman in the world’ today by far – the top three looks very promising! Also, the middle order looks stable with the presence of ‘calm and composed’ MS Dhoni, once recognized the best finisher in the world, to guide through the crunch situations along with newly appointed ‘finishers’ – Dinesh Karthik and Kedhar Jadhav to do their magic at the end overs.

Unfortunately, over the years, though India managed to produce extremely talented bowlers but never in the history, had the entire bowling unit together looked so lethal. With Jasprit Bumrah leading the pace battery along with ever disciplined Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Mohamed Shami combined with deadly spin attack of Kuldeep Yadap and Yuzvendra Chahal – the ‘Kul-Cha’ duo, India’s bowling attack appears to be the best in the world. In fact, the bowling unit looks far better than the batting – Quite surprisingly!

Also, India has eventually discovered a genuine all-rounder in form of Hardik Pandya giving an ideal balance to the team. Not only that, India has ticked another very important box especially for limited over cricket - ‘fielding’. With the introduction of ‘Yo-Yo’ test being a mandatory requirement, the fitness levels has certainly risen to new heights with players such as Ravindra Jadeja leads the way with their agility on the field. Until and unless, India do not lose their players through last minute injuries or some interesting conversations ‘over a Koffee’, the team looks to be absolutely ready to win the World Cup once again.

Over the past two years, the team has worked towards building a strong team and it seems like, all boxes have been ticked successfully. Now, it is just the matter of keeping the nerves and executing the plans on the field for Virat Kohli to live his dream of winning the ICC Cricket World Cup after a wait of 11 long years!