India looking beyond Ashwin

In the absence of any clarity from the selection committee over omission and inclusion of some players for the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka, speculations flew thick and fast. R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were thought to be rested while Yuvraj Singh was believed to have been dropped after poor shows in the Champions Trophy and the West Indies series.

The chairman of selectors, MSK Prasad, however, met media personnel during the course of the third Test here and clarified that no one had been rested and none dropped; it’s just that players were being rotated to identify the nucleus of the team before the 2019 World Cup. While it’s difficult to see Yuvraj, the ageing Punjab warrior, return to the fold again, the selection patterns over the last couple of years, both the squads and the final XI, suggest that the team management may already be looking beyond Ashwin.

Since the end of the World Cup in 2015, the off-spinner’s appearances in ODIs have been sporadic. He is either rested after every Test series or is kept out of the playing 11. In the Champions Trophy itself, he wasn’t picked for the first two matches and sat out the last two matches against West Indies despite having returns of 3/28 in India’s big win at North Sound in his last ODI for India.

The Chennai bowler has played in just 15 of India’s 37 matches since the away Bangladesh series in June 2015 and with no meaningful stretch of matches under his belt, it has had its impact on his performances. Even as his stature has grown exponentially as a Test bowler, just 17 wickets at an average of 40.58 and an economy rate of 5.36 during the same period pale in comparison to his career ODI record – 150 wickets in 111 matches at 32.91 and a much better economy rate of 4.91. The other two aspects that go against Ashwin are his batting and fielding.

Unlike in Tests, where he can gather runs without the pressure of acceleration, his batting in ODIs is less effective and while he is a safe fielder, he isn’t the swiftest in the team. Ravindra Jadeja musters enough confidence in both these aspects and hence appears a more attractive option if India are to go with just one finger spinner.

The fact that Virat Kohli is a big fan of wrist spinners means the likes of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal are going to be seen in action more and more. The Indian skipper believes wrist spinners are more useful in conditions that doesn’t offer much assistance to spinners.

“Having wrist spinners in the team is always an advantage,” Kohli said the other day. “You see teams across the world -- they have at least one wrist spinner, if not two in their side, giving you breakthroughs in the middle overs which is very important.”

That the selectors have let Ashwin ply his trade in county cricket, keeping in mind India’s five-Test series against England next year, also forces the 30-year-old to miss the five-match ODI rubber against Australia at home. And if the other spinners continue their good work, it may become a touch difficult for Ashwin to force his way back into the ODI set-up.       

India’s bowling coach Bharat Arun, however, rallied behind Ashwin, terming him “very skilful,” when asked if Ashwin needed to reshape his bowling to suit the demands of the ODI game.  

“This question should be asked to the selectors,” he replied.

“… But as a bowling coach I think he is an extremely talented bowler and even if you look at his last ODI which he played in West Indies, he got 3 for 25… (3/28 actually). Ashwin is very very skilful. I don’t want to look at what has happened so far. But definitely Ashwin is also part of the ODI team which we are looking at. We would also like to give a lot of opportunities to other bowlers as well and then we have a long-term plan in place. We will take a call accordingly after that,” he offered.

While Ashwin is far from finished as an ODI bowler, he is facing more competition than ever before as India continue experimenting with younger spinners to arrive at their core.