“Ravichandran Ashwin has lost time, but his quality hasn’t gone anywhere,” Rohit Sharma hints Ashwin’s return in ODIs
Ravichandran Ashwin has not played ODI cricket for India since 2017
Rohit Sharma has hinted that the veteran off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin might be brought back into India’s ODI set up again because of the versatility that he brings to the table. Ashwin has already made a comeback to India’s T20I set up and even though India didn’t qualify to the knockouts of the T20 World Cup earlier this year, Ashwin was still kept in the side for the New Zealand series where he played all 3 T20I games.
According to Rohit, who will now lead India in all white-ball games, Ashwin might have lost out on a couple of years of his limited-over career, but he has not lost his quality. His quality as a limited-over bowler is still there and with him there in the XI, a captain has the luxury to use him at any given point of time, in the powerplay or in the middle phase.
India has generally played with wrist spinners in limited over cricket after the Champions Trophy 2017 and despite the fact that they gave India aggressive and wicket taking options in the middle overs, the wrist spinners never gave India a powerplay option, which is something Ashwin gives. Since he is good with the bat too, Ashwin also strengthens India’s lower order batting a little bit, which is always key in limited over cricket.
Ravichandran Ashwin was the best bowler in the recent India Vs New Zealand T20I series
Calling Ashwin an “allround” bowler on the show Backstage with Boria, Rohit seemed keen to define a role for Ashwin in the next two ICC tournaments coming up where India will be going title hunting. Rohit has been specifically brought into the leadership position to end India’s title drought since 2013 and the 34-year-old has identified Ashwin as one of his key men for the job.
Ravichandran Ashwin was easily the best bowler out of both sides in the recent T20I series between India and New Zealand, as he put on an exhibition of variations against both left-handers and right-handers with a dewy ball.
