Ravichandran Ashwin last played an international Twenty20 match against the West Indies in Kingston in 2016. Despite playing regularly for the Indian Test team for the last four years, he did not get a chance to play in limited-overs. Many assumed that Ashwin’s future in the national team jersey was over in a limited-overs game. Just then, the selectors surprised the 35-year-old spinner by including him in the squad for the T20 World Cup.
India has played two warm-up matches against England and Australia before the start of the World Cup. Ashwin played in both matches. But he was not in the XI against Pakistan in the World Cup. Former England spinner Graeme Swann is a bit disappointed with this. He has suggested Ashwin play in India’s next matches in the World Cup. India’s opponent in the second match today is New Zealand.
India has played only one match against Pakistan in the World Cup so far. India lost spinners Varun Chakraborty and Rabindra Jadeja by 10 wickets. Swann suggested taking the number of spinners to three by playing Ashwin, ‘Personally, I would love to see Ashwin play. I don’t think playing three spinners would be a bad thing. ‘
Praising Ashwin, Swann said, “If a pacer or Hardik Pandya can’t bowl, Ashwin can play in that place. I would be biased towards spinners. So I want to see Ashwin. He is a great bowler. He has a lot of variety and he is a big match player. He can turn around and play a good role in the matches he has to win.
In the last match, Virat Kohli bowled spinner Varun Chakraborty in the fourth over. Swann didn’t like the idea either, ‘I don’t like spinners in power-play; Unless someone is as great as Shakib. Because, it’s a defensive approach. You’re just trying to block a shot to the boundary. ‘