Ashwin and Jadeja are not out of the race, says India's bowling coach Bharat Arun

While many believe that the future of India’s off-spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in International limited overs cricket is bleak, bowling coach Bharat Arun gave hopes to the ‘spin twins’ stating that they are “not out of the race” despite wrist spinners like  Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav calling the shots at the moment.

Ahead of India’s fourth One Day International against South Africa (February 10) in Johannesburg, he answered the query about the decision to pick Chahal and Kuldeep in Sri Lanka last year ahead of Ashwin and Jadeja. Arun explained that the primary reason behind it was that it was in attempt to “rotate” the bowlers and check the “good pool of bowlers”.

“At that point of time (in Sri Lanka series) we wanted to try out all our talent. We had a good pool of bowlers. As you would understand, the volume of cricket that we are playing, we need to keep rotating those bowlers so that they are fresh for every format. These two bowlers showed a lot of promise and we said in overseas conditions a wrist spinner would do lot more than finger spinner. Rightly so they have come to the party here,” 55-year-old Arun said on Friday at The Wanderers Stadium.

Building a pool of players

However, he also added that the move was also an effort to increase their plethora of options and create a potential pool of players that can make the cut in the 2019 World Cup squad eventually. While the Kul-Cha duo has shown their mettle in their challenges so far, the Ash-Jaddu combination hasn’t been ruled out yet.

The former India all-rounder added, “We wanted to look at all the existing talent that we had. We wanted to look at the pool of talent and then we would decide on who we would want for the ultimate goal of the World Cup. It is not that Ashwin and Jadeja are out of the race. They could still be into the team.”

Ashwin and Jadeja, India’s best spinners in the Test format, have not featured in India’s white-ball plans since October 2017. Ashwin last played an ODI in June 2017 and Jadeja in July 2017. Chahal and Kuldeep have done well in home series and now have accounted for 21 victims in three matches in the ongoing ODI series against South Africa.

On the duo’s success, Arun said, “They are extremely positive. They are not afraid to flight the ball. They are not afraid to impart that extra spin. And they are not dependent on the wicket. They get lot out of the air. They have enough skills to beat batsmen in the air. And they just back their instincts,” as reported by IB Times.

Captain on the same page?

However, if captain Virat Kohli’s words are to be believed, he almost confirmed that Chahal and Kuldeep would be a certainty for next year’s World Cup in England. Moreover, world cricket is realizing the power of wrist spinners and there is also no doubt that Chahal and Kuldeep are perhaps among the best in the world at the moment.

“They might get hit for 70-odd in the next game. But there is no problem in that because you know that if they bowl attacking lines then they will end up picking two-three wickets every game. In these conditions now and we are going to play the World Cup away from home, that I think is going to be the massive x-factor for us,” Kohli had said after the third ODI in Cape Town on Wednesday.