Injured Axar Patel has been replaced by the Experienced Veteran Off-Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin for the upcoming Cricket World Cup 2023, to commence in India.
Ashwin’s 2nd ICC Cricket World Cup in India:
Team India announced their 15 Man Squad for the upcoming Men’s ICC Cricket World Cup on 5th September 2023. All the players were assessed respectively by the selection crew throughout the year. With so much talent on their hands, selecting 15 players is always a tough choice to make for a nation like India.
Veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was left out of the 15-Man Squad for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. Left arm All-Rounder Axar Patel was chosen over him instead. This raised many doubts and question marks in the media as well as the people of the nation.
Eventually due to Axar suffering a quadriceps injury during the Asia Cup, will take another couple of weeks before he resumes bowling and following discussions with the team management, the selectors decided to include Ashwin, who alongside Virat Kohli, will play his second World Cup on home soil and third overall. Even though Axar’s injury made the switch simple, India has been keeping an eye on Ashwin. Ashwin’s name was debated extensively when the selectors met with the team management, which includes captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid, before choosing the squads for the Asia Cup and World Cup because they believed an off-spinner would be needed in home conditions.
Ashwin’s Form In The Last 5 ODI’s:
Ravichandran Ashwin was a regular for Team India during ODI’s from 2010-2017, the emergence of wrist spinners required for Modern Cricket saw out Ashwin’s decline in the particular format. He later was moved more below the pecking order with the arrival of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav in the Nation.
As Ashwin’s Selection has been confirmed by the Board Of Cricket Council Of India (BCCI) for the upcoming Cricket World Cup, replacing the injured Axar patel.
His selection for the Upcoming World Cup has aroused the curiosity of the Indian Fans regarding when the veteran off-spinner previously featured for the Men in Blue in ODIs and his performances in his previous few 50-over games.
For that, we must go all the way back to Ashwin’s final ODI appearance for India in January 2022, which also happened to be the second ODI in the three-match series in South Africa.
Ashwin participated in the first two ODIs of that series, recording 1/53 in game one and a pitiful 0/68 in game two as India lost both games.
Prior to that, in June 2017, the 37-year-old participated in the first three games of the five-match series in the West Indies. Ashwin recorded statistics of 1/47 in nine overs and 3/28 in 10 overs, respectively, in the remaining two games of that series when the Indian batting innings was called off after 39 overs.
Nevertheless, the off-spinning all-rounder has 151 wickets in 113 games at an average of 33.49 and an economy rate of under five runs per over, which are acceptable overall stats in ODIs.
India’s World Cup campaign gets underway on October 7 when they take on five-time Champions Australia in Chennai. The first warm-up game for Rohit Sharma’s team will take place against England on September 30. The second will take place against the Netherlands on October 3.
With the skills and honours that Ashwin possesses in this sport a lot of pressure will be on the 37 year old’s shoulders to showcase his immense quality in what might possibly be his last ICC Cricket World Cup.
