India have taken a punt by selecting R Ashwin in the World Cup squad, but it is not all bizarre, writes Sarah Waris.
Life works in strange ways for Ashwin. In June, he was dropped from the India XI for the World Test Championship final against Australia, despite arguably playing the biggest role in taking the team through to the summit clash.
Four months later, he is all geared up to play his first 50-over World Cup game in eight years, after getting a call-up over Washington Sundar at the last minute following Axar Patel’s injury.
There was always the temptation to pick Ashwin, who played only two ODIs in the last six years until he returned for Australia series just ahead of the World Cup.
Chief selector Ajit Agarkar expressed his, and the team’s desire, to have an off-spinner in the squad for variety, but Axar’s batting had tilted the odds in his favour, given India’s long tail.
India’s original squad had Axar, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav as their three spinners. All three are left-armers, but wrist-spinner Kuldeep provides variety: his stock ball comes into the right-hander.
On the other hand, it is difficult to play both finger spinners, Axar and Jadeja, who can be taken apart by left-hand batters. Given that Axar and Jadeja are the only spin-bowling all-rounders, it would have complicated things a bit. The Indian management has hesitated to bowl Patel and Jadeja against left-hand batters recently.
Ashwin, on the other hand, is not afraid to experiment with his skills, and is capable against both right- and left-hand batters. He recently dismissing Marnus Labuschagne with a ‘third finger’ carrom ball, His inclusion will add variety to the Indian bowling attack.
India had their reasons to leave Ashwin out of the ODI side since 2017. A member of the 2011 World Cup-winning squad, he went on to play more games than any other bowler for India from 2012 to 2015, and claim the most wickets (101) as well. With a 65-wicket cut-off, his strike rate (41) was the best for India, while his economy rate of 4.82 was the best among spinners in the world with 50 wickets.
In the next two years, Ashwin’s economy rate rose to 5.93 and his strike rate to 56. It coincided with the meteoric rise of two exciting wrist-spinners, Kuldeep and Yuzvendra Chahal, who lived up to the moniker of ‘KulCha’ with delicious spells for India.
It led to Ashwin being sidelined from the ODI set-up. Even when the two younger players saw their newfound stardom fading away after the batters deciphered them, India hesitated to give Ashwin another serious look-in. Until 2023.
In early September, India included Axar in the World Cup squad largely to provide batting depth to a side that had an uncertain middle order following the injuries to KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer. With Jadeja and Hardik Pandya, India had to stack up batting resources. Axar, who averages 30 with a strike rate of 106 in the format since the start of 2022, was seen as the best option.
It was a step to bolster the batting for an additional bowling candidate, with the World Cup expected to see high scores because of the smaller boundaries and the formation of dew in the latter half of the tournament.
After the World Cup squad was named, the Indian batters had an excellent Asia Cup, and both Iyer and Rahul not only regained fitness but also made ODI hundreds. When Axar was injured, thus, India were not looking for batting strength alone: they returned to Ashwin for the first time since January 2022.
The out-of-the-blue pick was not unbecoming of India, who have shown their preference to resort to experience in the face of adversity. Last year, they selected Mohammed Shami out of the blue for the T20 World Cup after Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out.
This took place at a time when reports of the selectors having decided to move on from Shami from T20Is. As things turned out, Shami played his first T20I in 11 months during the event.
A year before that, India had called up Ashwin for the 2021 T20 World Cup after four years, when the event was held on low pitches in the UAE.
While neither selection produced desired results, it may work this time. Ashwin’s bowling record in Tests in India speak for itself, and while these are different formats, there are few who will know the conditions in different parts of the country better.
Ashwin is unlikely to play every match, and may be selected over Shardul Thakur only on turning tracks of Chennai, his home town, Delhi or Lucknow where he should be lethal.
The argument against picking Ashwin after 2017 was his inability to pick up wickets in the middle overs. However, batters becoming more aggressive in this format due to the influence of T20s increases his chances of being a genuine wicket-taking threat. In the recent Australia series, he conceded 88 runs in 17 overs, but also grabbed four wickets.
Ashwin is a bowling genius, but he is also a capable batter down the order. The five Test hundreds, and 14 other scores in excess of fifty, bear testimony to that.
While he has not proven to be as consistent with the bat in white-ball cricket, he does move up the order in the IPL, and has the wits to hold onto his nerves with two required off one, gauge the line the bowler would target, and let it pass for a wide to ensure a defeat is out of the way.
India’s only memorable outing in the 2022 T20 World Cup was the win against Pakistan, brought about by Virat Kohli’s stunning knock, but it could all have ended in vain if not for a moment of brilliance by Ashwin.
Sometimes, that is all you need to win a World Cup. Knowing Ashwin, he is the most likely to produce those.
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