Veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has secured a spot in India’s final 15-player squad for the 2023 World Cup. He replaces Axar Patel, who was initially named in the provisional squad but couldn’t recover from a left quadriceps strain sustained during the Asia Cup match against Bangladesh on September 15.
Ashwin has already joined the team in Guwahati, where they have their first warm-up game against England on September 30. During the interim, Ashwin got to play two of the three home ODIs against Australia and made a strong comeback in the format, taking four wickets across two matches.
In the second ODI in Indore, he displayed his full range of skills, troubling batsmen like David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne with various versions of his carrom ball on a challenging batting pitch at the Holkar Stadium.
Ashwin’s inclusion provides India with an offspinner alongside Ravindra Jadeja’s left-arm orthodox and Kuldeep Yadav’s left-arm wrist spin as well, forming a well-rounded spin attack for India for the mega event. Rohit Sharma, the captain, also applauded R Ashwin’s ability to perform under pressure before the final ODI in Rajkot, highlighting his experience and class, despite not playing ODIs for a while as well.
“He has got the class and the experience of playing the sport and handling the pressure,” Rohit had said. “It is just that he has not played ODIs in the last year or so, but you cannot take away the class and the experience… and in the last couple of games we saw how well he bowled.”
Ashwin will be participating in his third ODI World Cup, his second on home soil, having been part of India’s victorious 2011 campaign and the 2015 edition in Australia. He missed out on the 2019 edition, where India opted for two leg spinners, but the team management has since reintegrated finger-spin into their game plans.
India’s Squad For ICC Cricket World Cup 2023:
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (VC), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah
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