Former cricketers Geoffrey Boycott, Ravi Shastri and VVS Laxman have all called on India to pick off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in their playing XI for their final group-stage match of the Champions Trophy, against South Africa on Sunday. The match is a virtual quarter-final, with the winner progressing to the semis while the loser will be knocked out.
Ashwin was not picked for both matches India has played so far, against Pakistan and Sri Lanka, both of whom are good players of spin. Sunday’s match will be played at The Oval, which has produced flat tracks so far in the tournament. “On such a flat pitch, a varied bowling attack is critical,” Boycott wrote in a column published in the Times of India.
“Which brings me to the question: why is Ravichandran Ashwin not playing?” he added. “I know the standard answers about how subcontinent teams supposedly play spin well, and so he was not used against either Pakistan or Sri Lanka, but Ashwin is the best spinner in the world! He’s clever, experienced, a good bat when required, so it makes no sense to me that he’s sitting on his backside watching.”
Boycott said that some teams, including India, are committing the mistake of thinking that the ball with seam in England when the weather is poor, and so they must pick seam bowlers over spinners. However, new and improved drainage systems at grounds in England have helped groundsmen produce good surfaces for batting where the ball does not seam, he added.
“Bowling seam up, with the ball not moving, no longer makes sense,” Boycott wrote. “You need people like Ashwin and [Ravindra] Jadeja to introduce variation, vary the pace of the attack, unsettle batsmen, and take wickets. You can’t stop batsmen from getting 300, and it’s no longer enough to bowl to a defensive field, off stump, on a length.”
Commentator Shastri also wrote in his column that India need to bring in Ashwin for one of the three pacers – Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah. “Or [Ashwin] could play in place of Kedar Jadhav, which means [all-rounder Hardik] Pandya bats at six,” he wrote. “South Africans are hurting against the spinners and rubbing more salt into their wounds would be par for course.”
Laxman wrote in his column that Ashwin should be brought in for Jadhav because captain Virat Kohli looked a “little lost for options” once Pandya and Jadeja went for runs against Sri Lanka. Kohli had responded by bringing himself and Jadhav, both part-timers, on to bowl, which also did not work out.
“I feel, with qualification on the line now and given how South Africa struggled against Pakistan’s spinners, the time is ripe for R Ashwin to return to the XI, in place of Jadhav,” Laxman wrote. “Ashwin and Jadeja in tandem will be quite a handful for the South Africans; equally, with the batting ticking over smoothly, India can go in one batsman light without it impacting their balance or firepower too much.”