The moment West Indies cricket team decided to quit midway through their India tour, not many expected to see any cricketing action from India until Australian tour. Normally in situations like these, any cricket board would have left it to their fate. But BCCI is not just any other cricket board. It is the richest and most influential board out there. So they decided to arrange a ODI series with Sri Lanka in no time to make up for the lost revenue.
Currently there aren't many if not any board which refuses an offer from BCCI. Srilanka immediately accepted India's proposal and within no time they were in India to play a five match ODI series. Both teams were without their full strength mainly because they decided to rest some of their key players before world cup. As a result, the hype around this tournament wasn't as much as expected.
India was expected to win this series as it was played in their home turf. But nobody expected Srilanka to lose without putting up a fight. India won the series 5-0 by white-washing Sri Lanka. While this series cannot be said as the perfect preparation for the world cup, India gained immensely out of it. The following the few areas where I guess India benefitted out of this series.
1. India now has three quality batsmen fighting for two opening slots. Dhawan, Rohit & Rahane are at the peak of their career. So in adverse of one regular opener not available, there is a perfect replacement option available. This series has really helped India in this regard.
2. India now has two options to choose the player to bat at number three. Both Rayudu and Kohli are perfect for the slot. Although it is pretty much sure that Virat Kohli will bat at no.3 position but depending upon the team combination & requirement, I wouldn't be surprised if he is asked to come at number four regularly.
3. With Akshar Patel's roaring success in the series, India now has three strong players to choose for the all-rounder slot. Ravindra Jadeja, Roger Binny and Akshar Patel will fight it out for the single slot if not two slots.
4. Umesh Yadav's impressive bowling in this series made sure that India has plenty of options to choose from for the fast bowlers place. There will be four good fast bowlers available for 2-3 slots. With Bhuvaneshwar kumar, Shami, Ishanth Sharma & Umesh yadav, India's fast bowling department looks as strong as any other side in the world.
With players for other slots almost confirmed & with above options, the top 13-15 members of the Indian team is almost finalized. Unless something unexpected happens, this series with sri lanka has almost confirmed the Indian team for the coming world cup in 2015.
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