5 Indian Bowlers whose 2019 World Cup dream might remain just a dream

Moving towards the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, all teams are looking to gear up and prepare schedules in order to provide good exposure to their players. India, as we know, are playing England at the latter's home turf and so far, have done fairly well, beating the hosts 2-1 in the T20Is and drawing 1-1 so far in the 3 match ODI series.

India's current ODI set-up comprises of players who are nearly-certain to be part of the squad for the 2019 World Cup, which is less than a year away. However, there are a few players who will be hoping for a call-up, but might not be able to make it.

Here are five such bowlers:

#1 Ravichandran Ashwin

Pretty similar to the situation Ravindra Jadeja would find himself in, Ashwin too, has failed to stick to the Indian limited overs set-up. With a set of bowling skills that is exciting, yet not a secret anymore in the modern era of video analysis and strategy building, Ashwin had become ineffective in ODIs and T20s, which saw him and Jadeja making way for Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. Ashwin does have phenomenal records to his name, but pretty much like what happened with veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, he has struggled to pick wickets and also leaks runs.

Although Ashwin and Jadeja are world class Test Cricket players, their spark as limited overs players is long gone. The very fact that Ashwin cannot be considered an all-rounder in limited overs cricket has worked against him, unlike his identity as a Test all-rounder, his batting skills do not have the ability to cater to modern day ODI needs.

#2 Mohammad Shami

With all the personal problems, Shami seems to have failed to concentrate on his game, and since the time Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, and Umesh Yadav have consistently been making it to every Indian limited overs squad, there is very little room for accommodating any other fast bowler(s) in the squad as Hardik Pandya is anyway included as the fast bowling all-rounder.

If Shami has to get selected in the World Cup squad, he needs to perform right now, and show marked improvement, which is going to be pretty difficult for him. With too many fast bowlers lined up to represent India in case any of the front-line fast bowlers gets injured, the likes of Siddharth Kaul, Shardul Thakur and Dhawal Kulkarni are more likely to get a call-up rather than Mohammad Shami.

#3 Ishant Sharma

Ishant Sharma

The man who bowled so assiduously during the build-up towards World Cup 2015 had to face the greatest disappointment of his life when he got injured right before the World Cup and was subsequently replaced by Mohit Sharma. Ishant couldn't fulfill his dream of playing his first World Cup for India, at a time he was arguably at one of his best forms, if not the very best.

Post the 2015 World Cup, Ishant never made any appreciable comeback, and therefore, was not even considered for any limited overs squad after India's tour of Australia in 2016. He is today an only test bowler who doesn't even get to play each test match for India, and his career seems to be on the downfall. Therefore, he is not someone the selectors would consider even for the 30 man probables for the World Cup squad.

#4 Dhawal Kulkarni

Dhawal Kulkarni has been someone who has been very consistent and accurate with the ball over the past few years, be it IPL, domestic cricket, List A cricket or India squad against an associate team.

Just because India has an abundance of deserving fast bowlers lined up as reserves at the moment, Dhawal might just miss the cut off and not make it to the squad. Since Hardik is a certain option while Bhuvaneshwar and Bumrah too are certain, as long as none of them is unfit or injured, and there are Umesh, Kaul and Shardul right in queue to fill in any vacant spot, Dhawal doesn't really stand a chance to make it.

#5 Mohit Sharma

An extremely talented and highly skilled bowler who performed unexpectedly well in the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Being a fast-medium pacer, he defied the odds against him and bowled his heart out while supporting Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami. Nobody expected him to replace the injured Ishant Sharma in the squad and do so well, which made him a seam bowling icon in India. It was post the 2015 World Cup, that his bowling started to reduce producing results.

He performed pretty poorly in IPL 2015 as compared to the previous 2 seasons. He picked only 14 wickets in 16 matches that year, with an economy rate of 8.43, as against 20 and 23 wickets with economies of 6.43 and 8.39 in 2013 and 2014 respectively. He has been injury prone and has neither been able to make any national comeback nor has he been exceptional at any level.