Arjuna Ranatunga backs Ravichandran Ashwin’s selection in Indian team

In a strange move, veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has made a comeback into the Indian ODI set-up for the series against Australia ahead of the ODI World Cup 2023 to be played in India.

Sri Lanka legend Arjuna Ranatunga has backed Ashwin’s selection in the Indian team. As per Ranatunga, he wants to see the off-spinner in the mix for the World Cup.

The 1996 World Cup-winning captain explained that Ashwin’s inclusion makes all the sense in the world given India are entering the World Cup with just one specialist spinner in Kuldeep Yadav. The left-arm wrist-spinner may be in red-hot form but Ranatunga feels that Ravindra Jadeja being an all-rounder, will put more pressure on Kuldeep and that if he goes for runs, India would need the wily fox Ashwin to contain the scoring.

“I don’t know whether India has two proper spinners. They have good all-rounders, who happen to be spinners but I can’t see a proper spinner in this side. On Indian pitches, they need a strong group of spinners. If not, it would be a disadvantage for India,” said Ranatunga during an interview.

“Of course, there is Kuldeep Yadav, he can be a match-winner as he showed against Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup. He is pretty clever from what I see, especially when it comes to using the variations. But you need one more to support him who could contain and attack because teams will try to target him and unsettle. Especially when you play against England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, sometimes you might have to play three spinners without affecting the balance of the team. And India doesn’t have a batsman who can bowl. Jadeja who bowls, bats at No 7,” he added.