India’s squad for the ICC Cricket World Cup finally has a complete form, as the last date for the final announcement of teams has elapsed. India made a forced change by bringing in off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in place of Axar Patel, who injured his hamstring and would not recover in time for the World Cup. Ravichandran Ashwin‘s inclusion will bolster India’s bowling department and bring more specialization into India’s spin attack.
Ravichandran Ashwin was called up for the series against Australia at home after Axar Patel picked up an injury in the Asia Cup during the match against Bangladesh. Axar was expected to be back in time for the first match, however, recent reports say that it will take at least 3 weeks for his recovery. Ashwin shone in his comeback game against Australia by picking 3 wickets and making the Aussie batters look clueless against him.
Former Indian batsman Wasim Jaffer had a hearty message to Ashwin for his inclusion in the World Cup squad. He released a tweet congratulating the off-spinner and wished that he pick many wickets along with a bowling partnership with Ravindra Jadeja at the other end.
Congratulations on making the WC squad @ashwinravi99 wish you lots of wickets at both ends of CWC23 – Wasim Jaffer
The Tamil Nadu cricketer was excellent in his bowling in the first two ODIs against Australia where he played, picking up 4 wickets which included a 3 wicket spell in the second ODI at Indore where the Australian batters looked clueless to Ashwin’s carrom ball. Ashwin went on to dismiss David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, and Josh Inglis in quick succession.
Skipper Rohit Sharma was all praises for Ashwin during his pre-match conference and hoped that the spinner’s experience would come in handy to India during pressure situations. Rohit added that Ashwin is an asset to the team thanks to a number of variations he has up his sleeve.
“You cannot take away the class and the experience that the individual has over the years and in the last couple of games we saw how well he bowled. He’s got a lot of variation up his sleeves and in case there is a chance, we can look at a lot of things” said Rohit Sharma.
“So hopefully, the way things are at this point in time, it does well for us because we’ve got all the backups and everything ready as well,” Rohit Sharma
India is set to play their two warm-up matches against England and Netherlands before heading to Chennai for their opening encounter against Australia.