The jury is in a dilemma regarding MS Dhoni’s presence in the 2019 World Cup squad but Virender Sehwag insisted that the Indian team hasn’t found the apt replacement of the former skipper yet which makes his place in the team unquestionable.

"We should not worry about whether Dhoni is scoring runs or not. We should only pray that MS Dhoni is fit till 2019 World Cup. The experience that he has in the middle and the lower middle order, no one has that," he added.

"Like life, the beauty of sports is that no two periods are identical. You will have to deal with it. There are days when you make runs and there will be a dry spell. Like in business, every year you don't make profits," he said.

Recently, MK Prasad asserted that Dhoni was not an automatic pick in the team anymore while others suggested that KL Rahul could take up the role behind the stumps as his namesake Dravid had more than a decade ago. However, Sehwag was quick to dismiss the idea stating that not having a "natural keeper" was detrimental to the team's cause.

Moreover, the Nawab of Najafgarh wants to give more chances to middle-order batsmen so that everyone has an experience of nearly 100 matches by the time World Cup begins. Sehwag added that the core team should be fixed no less than a year before the World Cup.

"The middle-order that would play in the World Cup along with the bowlers should be given enough opportunities, so by the time of World Cup, they should have played close to 100 ODIs each. They should be ready to handle each and every challenging situation thrown at them," Sehwag said.

Even though the Indian team a core that played in the previous edition of the World Cup in Australia, Sehwag was adamant that the selection of a veteran in the team could do wonders in England. While Yuvraj Singh was in the squad for the Champions Trophy earlier this year, Sehwag threw in the game of former teammate Suresh Raina into the mix as well. 

"Let one of the middle-order slots be given to one of them while the other slot may be rotated between Kedar Jadhav and Manish Pandey. In that way, you also have given these guys experience while one seasoned player is also there in the set-up," he stated.

"I thought that he was being given a break as he has bowled a lot in the Test series. Ideally, he should have been given rest but then it's a decision that Ashwin and team management needed to take. I don't know what's in their minds. May be they are focussing on winning the Test series in England next year and if that's the case, then so be it," he said. 

Talking on the subject of the upcoming limited overs series against Australia, Sehwag assumed that it is going to be a hard-hitting series taking into consideration the quality of the opposition.