India have taken a punt by selecting R Ashwin in the World Cup squad, but it is not all bizarre, writes Sarah Waris.

Life works in strange ways for Ashwin. In June, he was dropped from the India XI for the World Test Championship final against Australia, despite arguably playing the biggest role in taking the team through to the summit clash.

Four months later, he is all geared up to play his first 50-over World Cup game in eight years, after getting a call-up over Washington Sundar at the last minute following Axar Patel’s injury.

There was always the temptation to pick Ashwin, who played only two ODIs in the last six years until he returned for Australia series just ahead of the World Cup.

Chief selector Ajit Agarkar expressed his, and the team’s, desire to have an off-spinner in the squad for variety, but Axar’s batting had tilted the odds in his favour, given India’s long tail.

India’s original squad had Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav as their three spinners. All three are left-armers, but while Kuldeep is a wrist spinner, Patel and Jadeja are left-arm orthodox finger spinners. Even though both offer a slightly different skill set, each can be susceptible to attack from left-hand batters, which would have restricted India on slow wickets, with the duo unlikely to bowl in tandem. Ashwin was seen as the bowler who could break this hegemony.

He is not afraid to experiment with his skills, and is capable against both right- and left-hand batters. Take, for example, his recent dismissal of Marnus Labuschagne with a ‘third finger’ carrom ball, His inclusion will add variety to the Indian bowling attack.

India had their reasons to leave Ashwin out of the ODI side since 2017. A member of the 2011 World Cup-winning squad, the off-spinner went on to become a mainstay in the team, playing more games than any other bowler for India from 2012 to 2015, and picking up the most wickets (101) as well. He had the second-best strike rate (40.8) among Indians with a minimum of 65 wickets in this period, although his economy rate of 4.82 was the second-worst among all spinners in the world, who had taken at least 50 wickets

In the next two years, Ashwin’s economy rate rose to 5.93, as did his strike rate, to 56.4. It coincided with the meteoric rise of two exciting wrist-spinners, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, whose moniker, ‘KulCha’, was in keeping with the delicious spells they produced for India over the next few months.

This led to Ashwin being sidelined from the 50-over set-up, and even when the two younger players saw their new-found stardom fading away after being deciphered by opposition batters, India hesitated to give Ashwin another serious look-in. Until 2023.

The decision to pick Axar in the World Cup squad, announced at the start of September, was mainly to provide batting depth to a side that had a brittle middle-order following the injuries to KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer. With question marks over the No.4 spot once again, combined with the poor batting form of Jadeja and Hardik Pandya, India had to stack their batting resources, and Patel, who averages 30 with a strike rate of 106 in the format since last year, was seen as the best option.

It was a step to bolster the batting for an additional bowling candidate, with the World Cup expected to see high scores because of the smaller boundaries and the formation of dew in the latter half of the tournament.

The form of India’s batters in the Asia Cup, following the World Cup squad announcement, and the return to fitness of Iyer and Rahul, came as a relief to team management. When a slot opened up, courtesy of the unfortunate injury to Axar, India, not looking for batting strength alone anymore, went back to Ashwin for the first time since January 2022.

The pick came out of the blue, and yet was in keeping with an India side who prefer to resort to experienced faces when faced with uncertainty. Last year, India selected Mohammed Shami in the T20 World Cup after an injury to Jasprit Bumrah, despite reports doing the rounds earlier that the selectors had decided to move on from the Bengal quick. Shami played his first T20I in 11 months during the event.

India had also called up Ashwin for the 2021 T20 World Cup after a four-year absence, with the event being held on slow, low pitches in the UAE.

While the two selections did not lead to a trophy in either instance, it could just work this time. Ashwin’s bowling figures in Tests in India speak for themselves, and while these are two different formats, there are few who will know the conditions in different parts of the country better than him. He is unlikely to play all matches and could be selected over Shardul Thakur only on turning tracks. When India turn up in Chennai, his home town, or in Delhi or Lucknow, he could be lethal.

Ashwin is a bowling genius, but he is also a capable batter down the order. While he has not been as consistent with the bat in white-ball cricket, he has the wits to hold onto his nerves with two required off one, gauge the line the bowler would target, and let it pass for a wide to ensure a defeat is out of the way.

India’s only memorable outing in the 2022 T20 World Cup was the win against Pakistan. It was a victory brought about by Virat Kohli’s stunning knock, but it could all have ended in vain if not for a moment of brilliance by Ashwin.

Sometimes, those flashes of brilliance are what you need to win a World Cup. Knowing Ashwin, he is the most likely to produce those.

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