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Does R Ashwin fit into India’s T20 outlook for Australia?
The experienced spinner returns against WI but will be competing with the more attacking Ravi Bishnoi and Kuldeep Yadav for a WC berth.
Ravichandran Ashwin who won a surprise call-up ahead of last year’s T20 World Cup is back in the mix for the upcoming edition in Australia and it still feels like a surprise. That’s because the experienced spinner has missed more T20I matches than he has played of late, having last featured in one against New Zealand in November 2021.
But Ashwin being handed a comeback for the West Indies series sits well with India’s objective of spreading the net wide before finalising the second spinner’s slot behind Yuzvendra Chahal. Ravindra Jadeja is being seen as more of a batting all-rounder on current form. The selectors could also exercise the option of picking an extra pacer.
Ashwin will be competing with Kuldeep Yadav, who returns from injury and the much younger Ravi Bishnoi. One of these three could make the final squad as a tactical option India may want to use to counter left-handed batters.
Before he was drafted in India’s 2021 World Cup squad, Ashwin was out of action for nearly four years. After being caught on the wrong foot during a phase finger-spinners went out of favour, the World Cup recall was his opportunity to pull out a piece of inspirational quote from his personal diary: "…only those in the tunnel who believe in the light will live to see it.”
Ashwin’s T20I returns while he was back were good. In the 2021 World Cup, he picked up 6 wickets in 3 matches at an economy of 5.25. But those matches were against Afghanistan and two minnows. It wasn't Ashwin’s fault, but he wasn’t picked for the two big games against Pakistan and New Zealand where India lost the Cup. He played in the following home series against New Zealand and bowled equally economically (5.25) picking up 3 wickets in 2 matches. Then, the selectors went searching for more options.
Ashwin would be 36 by the time the World Cup starts. But age is not a primary consideration in T20 cricket. Fitting the team’s requirements matter more in World Cup selections.
A defensive plan
The call for the selectors and team management to make would be to choose which mode of spinner suits there gameplan. While Bishnoi and Kuldeep are more wicket-taking, Ashwin could prove to be an ideal defensive foil for Chahal as was the case for Rajasthan Royals.
Ashwin now brings out his off-spinner sparingly with the white ball in hand. Instead, he bowls everything from leg-spin, sliders, lowers his release points, dances around the crease, flicks his carrom ball, even rings in a reverse carrom ball if a batter starts picking the conventional one. Ashwin’s mantra for survival in T20 cricket is clear - spinners need to be unpredictable. A characteristic that comes naturally to wrist-spinners. Finger-spinners need to innovate.
Ashwin is at war with experts who want him to rely on his stock ball. "For me when you say a bowler has to pick wickets, for fast bowlers there are different plans and for spinners, there are different plans," he said during the World Cup last year.
"There are different lengths that you cannot afford to bowl as you do in a Test match. Wicket-taking is not something that just happens. Every time a bowler is picking wickets, there is an over that was bowled well before. I think I expect too much from the people who watch the game. This is how I play the game and, in the process, if I keep taking wickets, I do that. 24 events are there when I bowl and I take them very seriously."
In this year’s IPL, Ashwin brought to the fore, an unknown facet of his white-ball game - six-hitting ability to go with his natural flair for timing with the bat. But India need him more with the ball and while he didn’t concede too many in IPL (ER. 7,51), his wickets came at a high strike rate of 33.5. Towards the end of RR’s campaign, head coach Kumar Sangakkara didn’t appear entirely convinced. “Ash has done a great job for us. And even for Ash, being a legend in terms of what he has achieved on the cricketing pitch, there will be lots of thinking and improvements to do especially with his off-spin and (to) bowl more of it.” he said.
Ashwin would have given Sangakkara’s words a deep thought. He will wait and see if that’s what Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma want him to do, too.
