Things have been somewhat turbulent for the Indian men’s cricket team over the past few days. Ever since the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced Rohit Sharma as the new ODI captain, a slew of concerning developments have emerged in the India camp.
Key players likely to miss India’s tour of South Africa
For one thing, Rohit, who was also ascended to the vice-captain’s role in tests, will be missing out the entirety of the three-match test against South Africa owing to a hamstring injury. But a potential development that has flummoxed a whole bunch of Indian fans is that Virat Kohli, the now-former India white-ball captain, will be taking a break from the subsequent ODI series to spend some time with his family.
And if the absence of several high-profile players from the team wasn’t stressful enough, recent reports suggest that Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya are mulling over retirement from tests. Clearly, there’s quite a bit of uncertainty around the availability and mindset of some key India players, and we, as fans, can only hope that the unity in the team is stronger than ever.
Ravichandran Ashwin: India’s comeback king
But there is one senior India player whose graph has been on a constant rise over the past few months. Off-spinner R Ashwin has been quite enjoying his game over the last few series. It started with his comeback to the Indian T20 side for the WT20- where he claimed 6 wickets in an otherwise forgettable campaign- to re-establish his position in the Indian white-ball setup. In the subsequent test series against New Zealand, Ashwin went one step further and ended up as the player of the series.
There’s no doubt that R Ashwin’s pedigree and sheer skills have played a massive part in the success that he has been enjoying over the past few months. But a deeper look into Ash’s background story- more specifically, his selection in India’s WT20 team- suggests that it was captain Kohli’s faith on him that enabled him to make a comeback to the national side.
Over on a recent interview with Boria Majumdar, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly revealed that it was Virat Kohli who wanted Ashwin to play in the World T20.
“Virat wanted R Ashwin to be part of the World Cup team”- Sourav Ganguly
“I wasn’t sure whether he (Ashwin) would be part of the white-ball team again. But then Virat Kohli wanted him to be part of the World Cup. And, whatever little bit of opportunity he got, I thought he was superb”, Ganguly told Boria on his podcast, ‘Backstage with Boria’.
Ganguly further went on to praise Ashwin by echoing India coach Rahul Dravid’s ‘all-time-great’ comment.
“Everybody speaks about him. Look at Rahul Dravid’s statement after the (Kanpur) Test match – he called him an all-time great. You don’t need rocket science to judge Ashwin’s talent. My appreciation just comes from what I see. It may be Ashwin, it may be (Shreyas) Iyer, it may be Rohit (Sharma), it may be Virat (Kohli). He has been a part of so many winning teams. Even when CSK won 2 IPLs in a row, Ashwin was their main bowler.
“Look at his Test record, it is phenomenal. It does not need me to say Ravichandran Ashwin is exceptional. His record and his performances show it. And you can’t ignore such players. You cannot just turn your eyes and say that he’s gone. I am not surprised with what he is doing,” Ganguly concluded.