Batting coach Sanjay Bangar on Saturday assured that a settled team will represent India in the 2019 ICC World Cup.
India, currently ranked second in the world, will be one of the favourites to lift the trophy in England this summer. But the nagging issue of an uncertain middle order continues to bother Indian camp.
But the former India batsman is confident that the selectors will assemble a "nice team," which will cover all bases.
Addressing the media on the eve of the fifth and final ODI match against New Zealand, Bangar said that "Probably the selectors have got that list down to 20, most of them are going to be part of the world cup squad and we have assessed the potential of lot of players... Selectors are also watching intently and going forward we will settle into a nice team which covers all bases."
India's batting came a cropper in the Hamilton game as they were dismissed for their seventh lowest total of 92.
However, Bangar said it was an one-odd failure.
"The middle order has risen to the occasion many times and delivered. Yes some situation has been trying but it is not that the middle order hasn't performed," Bangar told reporters.
"When required, more often than not whenever it has been put in a situation, it has delivered, may be the last game was an aberration," he added.
Bangar explained his point by giving example of games -- Cuttack (India vs England, Jan 2017), Indore (India vs SA, Oct 2015) and MCG final (India vs Australia, Jan 2019) -- where the middle order contributed to win matches.
"...if they (top order batsmen) are batting well then the middle order doesn't get the opportunity required to maintain the groove," the former India allrounder said.
"It is also one of those series where our top order hasn't got a hundred, so it has given a lot of time to the middle order to go out there and play situations ... and they have finished games when they have got an opportunity."
India's batting unit without skipper Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni didn't have any answers to Trent Boult's devastating spell but Bangar said such games actually help them reflect on what they can do better.
"It was an one-off game for us. We know we played well below our potential and our expected levels, the boys realise it and we just need to put that game behind and look to the next game," he said.
"It gives us an opportunity to reflect in case if we miss out players due to fitness issues. World Cup will be a long tournament, there will be injuries and players are going to miss out and it gives us a reflection as to how players will cope up in their absence and we were found wanting in that situation in the last game.
"But they are quality players, even in the third game, Dinesh Karthik and Ambati Rayudu had stitched a partnership of 82 to finish the game, so we can't really draw too many conclusion after one-odd failure."
Bangar said the team management is trying to rotate the players to give everyone some game time.
"We are trying to balance out opportunities, trying to keep them hot and give them enough game time. This is a conscious effort specially in Australia and here where we have rotated our players," he said.
"There are going to be time where a player doesn't get 5-6 games on a row, so we are trying to make that balance. In the number of games that we had we have made sure that everybody is getting some sort of hit by rotating the players around."
India will take on New Zealand in a three-game T20I series, beginning Wednesday.
The 2019 edition of ODI World Cup will start on May 30 and will complete on July 14.
(With PTI inputs)
