Champions Trophy | ‘What I don’t understand is the number of spinners…’: R Ashwin raises questions over India’s tactics | Cricket News
With the Indian team management naming five spinners in the form of Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja and Varun Chakravarthy in the final updated squad for Champion Trophy, former Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has raised questions for Indian taking so many spinners to Dubai. While India had named Yashasvi Jaiswal in the provisional squad, the Mumbai batsman was excluded from the final squad with Chakravarthy making his way into the final squad.
“What I don’t understand is the number of spinners we are taking to Dubai. Five spinners and we have made Yashasvi Jaiswal sit out. Yeah I understand that we take three or four spinners for a tour. But five spinners in Dubai? I don’t know. I think we are one spinner too many if not two. The two left-arm spinners are your best all-rounders alongside Hardik Pandya. So both Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja are going to play. Hardik will also play and Kuldeep will play. If you want Varun Chakravarthy in the team, then you will have to make a pacer sit out and use Hardik as your second pacer. Else you will have to drop a spinner to bring in a third seamer,” Ashwin said on his Youtube channel Ash ki Baat.
While Chakravarthy made his debut during India’s second ODI against England last week, the leg-spinner had picked up a total of 14 wickets in the five match T20I series against England earlier. Ashwin though expects Chakravarthy to form a good pair with Kuldeep but finds the number of spinners being taken to Dubai as ‘uncomfortable’. “I don’t think there is any doubt that Kuldeep Yadav will walk into the team. So how will you make space for Varun. Is he bowling well? Of course. Either you bring in Varun and Kuldeep as a duo, which I feel would be good. But my question is, in Dubai, are you expecting the ball to turn? In the recently held ILTO, we saw that the ball was not turning that much in Dubai and teams were chasing 180-run totals with ease. I feel a bit uncomfortable with the team,” added Ashwin.
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The former cricketer found Yashasvi Jaiwal’s exclusion a bit unfortunate. Jaiswal, who too made his ODI debut in the first ODI of the three-match series against England, was later dropped to make way for Virat Kohli in the second ODI and did not play further in the series.
“I am honestly glad that I am not in a position of explaining things to Yashasvi Jaiswal. If I was the coach or captain then what will I even tell him? I raise this question many times that what are you messaging to a player? Yashasvi was bringing water for the players. I was thinking what would be going on in his mind? He would have been happy that he would be in the Champions Trophy team. And now suddenly he is not in the team. It’s the same for anybody who misses out,” said Ashwin.
