The newly appointed Team India’s ODI captain Rohit Sharma feels that the experienced off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin will play a crucial role in white-ball cricket in the coming years. Ashwin has given his comeback in the limited-over format this year during the T20 Worldcup after a big gap of four long years.
Ashwin was always a primary choice bowler in Team India’s Test side in the past decade and he has lost his place in the white-ball format because of the new emerging talent of wrist spinner in Indian cricket.
In a recent interview, skipper Rohit Sharma said – “Ashwin will give you that flexibility, you can use him in the powerplay or the middle over, so having a bowler like that – an all-rounder bowler I’d like to call – who can bowl anytime and anywhere in whatever situation, is always important,” Sharma was quoted as saying while speaking to journalist Boria Majumdar on ‘Backstage with Boria’.
Whether it may be an international cricket or a league match, Ashwin has always given his best with the ball and he always tends to improvise his tactics for any track.
Rohit also added – “You don’t want one-dimensional bowlers where you know he can only bowl outside powerplay, he cannot bowl in the death, can only bowl to right-handers, can only bowl to left-handers. The more options you have with bowlers the better, that’s what I felt, I thought he’d be a great addition, and I think he’s here to stay. He’s definitely here to stay,”
In Test rankings, he has earned 43 rating points and has reached a total of 883 – He is currently standing at the 2nd position and he is 67 points ahead of the 3rd placed Josh Hazlewood.
Ashwin has started his good form during the Australian series at Sydney – In that particular series, he was suffering from a severe back injury, despite that he played an outstanding role for his side.
And he came back into his own form during the home series against England where he won the Man of the Series award and he was the series highest wicket-taker with 32 wickets in 4 games.
R Ashwin is arguably one of Indias best bowlers during the World Test Championship finals in 2021, where he picked wickets in both innings.
