Why Kishan needs to be part of India's playing XI

As things stand, Ishan Kishan may start the World Cup from the bench. Going by the pecking order that is not based on recent form, KL Rahul is set to be India's No.5 despite not playing competitive cricket since May. The remainder of the Asia Cup and the ODIs against Australia should provide ample warm up.

- Somshuvra Laha

Even if they don't, the World Cup league phase is long enough for the management to throw its weight behind Rahul for at least another couple of matches.

As much as it seems fair to Rahul, who has the best average (56.53) among all batters at No.5 to have played at least five innings since the 2019 World Cup, it also is unfair to Kishan who not only has a staggering career strike rate of 106.74, but also averages a fifty every second innings. The sample size still is small - Kishan has played just 17 innings so far. Nevertheless, it is impressive considering he never got a set position unlike, say, Shubman Gill who has opened in 25 of his 29 ODI innings. Kishan, by comparison, has already batted from 1 to 5.