Ravichandran Ashwin’s role in One-Day Internationals has been a much-debated topic in recent times. An indispensable part of the Test team, the off-spinner has not featured prominently in the 50-over format.Since 2015 World Cup, India have played 40 ODIs but the Tamil Nadu has played just 15 of them, taking only 17 wickets at 40.58.
The way things have panned out in the last couple of months have only raised eyebrows over the 30-year old’s future in ODI and T20I. After being the standout bowler in India’s mammoth home season, Ashwin was surprisingly benched for the first two games of the ICC Champions Trophy and the selectors’ decision to leave him out of the current ODI series in Sri Lanka has only added fuel to the fire.
However, head coach Ravi Shastri has quashed all the speculations and has also said that the team is not looking beyond Ashwin by giving Kuldeep Yadav ample chances. But at the same time, Shastri gave a subtle hint that Ashwin is more important for the team in the longest format of the game rather than the limited-overs one.
“No. There’s a lot of cricket. We are going to try in one-day cricket a lot of players over the next year or so. So that 12 months before the World Cup, you know what is your nucleus of players, 18 or 20 players, who you can pick from for the World Cup. There’s a lot of one-day cricket, there’s a lot of T20 cricket and there’s a lot of Test cricket. So we got to keep our bowlers fresh to be able to play all formats, but at the same time, ensure that you have the players you want for particular formats,” Shastri told The Indian Express when asked whether the team is looking for Ashwin’s alternatives.
Ashwin, Jadeja are outstanding cricketers. They are one and two in the list. We want them fresh for Test cricket. So it gives us an opportunity across 50-over cricket and T20 cricket to try out different players. I don’t get involved in selection but the selectors have the opportunity there to try different players so that we know who is ready, who can be in a position to make it to the side for the World Cup,” he added.
When asked about Ashwin’s distinct roles in Test cricket and ODI, the coach said: “It’s very taxing on a bowler. He has done outstandingly well in one-day cricket as well in the past. But if you look at the amount of Test cricket that is being played and the kind of standards he has set, it’s not easy to play across all three formats and then sustain the same kind of level or performance all the time as a bowler.
“In the next few years, India are playing 25 Test matches. So you want players like Ashwin to be fresh and ready for that. And yes, when the big tournaments come, obviously we will have to look at how well he is bowling, what’s the right combination needed and take it from there,” he added.