Yuvraj Singh minced no words as he took on senior Team India player – Ravichandran Ashwin – and chances of him featuring in the white ball formats. The former left-arm all-rounder fired shots saying R Ashwin doesn’t deserve any place in senior men’s ODI and T20I outfits.
Ashwin’s career in the ODIs and the T20Is hasn’t shown a steady graph since 2017. Though he has often featured in some ICC tournaments of late, he hasn’t managed to bag a regular place in the limited overs side for team India.
He lost his place to Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, back in 2017. Since then, team India has seen an array of spinners coming into the side, but Ashwin’s career didn’t resurrect, though, he made some odd appearances.
The veteran spin-bowling all-rounder was included in India’s T20 World Cup 2022 squad, which surprised most of the fans. He again got a chance to play the ODI World Cup 2023 after Axar Patel was ruled out.
Although Ashwin came in as the replacement for Axar Patel in the ODI World Cup 2023, he could only feature in a solitary fixture against Australia in which he returned with a spell of 1/34.
Acknowledging Ashwin’s accolades in the test format, Yuvraj Singh reckons the all-rounder rightfully deserves a place in the red-ball format, but he doesn’t add any value to the side in the ODIs and T20Is.
“Ashwin is a great bowler but I don’t think he deserves a place in ODIs and T20s,” said Yuvraj Singh. “He is very good with the ball, but what does he bring with the bat? Or as a fielder? In the Test team, yes, he should be there. But in white-ball cricket, I don’t think he deserves a place.”
The two-time World Cup winner asserted that Ashwin doesn’t fit into Team India’s aspiration of having bowlers who can bat down the order.
R Ashwin’s Surprise inclusion in Team India World Cup squads
Between 2011 and 2017, R Ashwin was Team India’s mainstream spinner in all three formats. There was no one who could challenge his place, in fact, no one came close to his magical figures in the white ball setup, having scalped 156 wickets in 116 ODI games.
However, his career took a downturn after the emergence of the famous ‘Kul-Cha’ duo. The all-rounder’s stokes began to sink and it could never recover post this. Even when the pair of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal looked feeble, the Indian management never considered having R Ashwin back into the side.
Despite getting overlooked, Ashwin always miraculously managed to get into India’s World Cup squads. However, he is very unlikely to be in the scheme of things anyhow for the upcoming T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the USA. It would not be less than a miracle if he manages a spot in India’s T20 World Cup 2024 outfit again.
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