Not just batters, spinners yet to turn up for India

Selectors brought Ravichandran Ashwin back from white-ball cricket wilderness, but the India think tank has chosen to bench him.

Although India’s batting debacle overshadows their shortcomings with the ball, their bowling returns (2-263) in the two matches have been bleak.

Ravichandran Ashwin of India (ANI)

When the 15-men squad was first selected, India had picked five spinners. The selectors at the time went by the hypothesis that wickets in UAE would get tired with the World Cup being played immediately after the IPL, and spinners would come into play. The plan was to regularly field three spinners in the eleven, with only three seamers and Hardik Pandya chosen in the squad. One of the spinners, Axar Patel, made way for Shardul Thakur, after an inexplicably late realisation that Pandya was not ready to bowl.

Yet, at the World Cup, the team has shied away from using the spin riches in their arsenal, picking three seamers and the largely non-bowling Pandya for both games. One plausible reason could be the dew factor in the evening matches, but it hasn't helped that the two spinners who have played the matches, Varun Chakaravarthy and Ravindra Jadeja, have looked completely tame.

Did the selectors and the team management not think about dew (and the fact that India play all their matches in the evening) while picking the squad? And why is it that R Ashwin is brought back from years-long white ball wilderness but not used at all? Or leg-spinner Rahul Chahar, picked for his greater bowling speed over the in-form Yuzvendra Chahal, continues to be on the bench?

Ashwin’s story in recent times across formats has been: good enough to in the squad, but not good enough for the playing eleven. The premier off-spinner's continued absence has become more mysterious than any of the new mystery balls he continues to work on.

That the selectors chose to announce his white-ball return for the World Cup outlining an off-spinner to be an “asset” in UAE conditions, after Ashwin had spent the entire England Test series warming the bench, seemed like a loud signal that Ashwin will now walk into the team. What's added layers to this mystery is that Ashwin has been phenomenal each time he has played. He picked up six wickets against Surrey before the Test series and 2 for 8 against Australia in addition to another tidy outing against England in the World Cup warm-ups.

“Obviously, he (Ashwin) is an experienced bowler, he adds a lot of value to our bowling attack whenever he comes. But in hindsight, it is very difficult…there is dew in the second innings and when the balls don't grip the options becomes very little,” Jasprit Bumrah said after the New Zealand match. “In hindsight, you may say he might have made a difference, but it is too difficult to judge right now.”

Be that as it may, where India currently stands, struggling to make any inroads in the powerplay overs, Ashwin could still be considered against Afghanistan on Wednesday. Chakaravarthy does not turn the ball much and his unpredictable variations only become threatening when batters have a big target to get to and desperate in their attack.

In Ashwin's case, while he hasn’t done a lot of powerplay bowling for his current team Delhi Capitals, he is no stranger to bowling with the field restrictions. MS Dhoni would successfully employ him in the powerplay for CSK and he has 43 wickets, the most by any spinner in IPL history, to show for it.

Ashwin 2.0 places more emphasis on delivering six different balls in an over, making clever use of the crease and bowling with varying release points. If employed as an attacking option in the powerplay, he can easily switch back to chasing wickets with dip and turn.