The Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is expected to be rested for the upcoming limited over series against Australia. At present, Ashwin is playing county cricket in England and selectors have no intention to call him back to India for the series,
“Ashwin has a contract of four games for Worcestershire. If he is called back after two games only, then the purpose of sending him to get a proper county exposure is lost. It’s the team management and the selectors who decided that he should be playing county cricket,” a BCCI official told PTI.
Ashwin is representing Worcestershire club in his first county stint. He has signed a contract for four games and as the official said, there is no point of selectors calling him back to India only after just two games. Ashwin scalped an eight-for in his first game whereas went wicketless in the second match. He is expected to play rest of his remaining games so as to get an idea about the conditions there, so as he could be vital when India tour to the country next year. Though he has to sacrifice his spot in ODI team for the same.
It is to be noted that he was not the part of the Indian team for the limited over series against Sri Lanka. He though said that he was rested for the series but there was no official word from the selectors, which raised few doubts as he has not been the permanent member of ODI team since 2015 World Cup.
The limited over series against Australia will start on September 17 with the first ODI to be played in Chennai. Kolkata, Indore, Bengaluru and Nagpur will host the next four games. Following the ODI games, the two teams will participate in three matches T20I series. Ranchi, Guwahati and Hyderabad would host the three T20I games respectively. Ashwin might just return for the T20I games. Before the start of the series, Australia will face Board President’s Squad on September 12 in Chennai.