Ravichandran Ashwin fit to play the Southampton Test

The Indian team’s campaign of England in the Test series got off to the worst possible start as they slumped to massive defeats in the first two matches at Edgbaston and Lord’s respectively. However, they stormed back to emerge triumphant in the third Test at The Trent Bridge in Nottingham. The fourth Test is scheduled to get underway tomorrow from August 30 at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton.

Virat Kohli and his men still have plenty of work to do in the next two games in order to keep themselves in contention for a series victory. Last time around in 2014, India lost their match at the very venue and would be hoping to turn their fortunes around. Meanwhile, it has been learned that off-break bowler Ravichandran Ashwin has been deemed fit to play the next match as per reports in ESPNcricinfo.

The seven-day break worked for Ashwin

The Tamil Nadu-born tweaker developed a groin injury during the third Test and was seen in clear discomfort. He could only bowl a solitary over in the first innings. He came back to bowl in the second innings of the match and ended with impressive figures of 22.5-8-44-1. The spinner picked up the final English wicket of James Anderson to end the formalities in the fifth day’s morning.

Nevertheless, he was in extreme pain and was seen hobbling in the park. Luckily, India got a seven-day break ahead of their next match and the same worked wonders for the spinner. On Monday, Ashwin didn’t bowl a single delivery and stayed away from fielding practice as well.

Quite expectantly, the same raised concerns over his participation in the penultimate encounter of the series. Nonetheless, he hit the nets on Tuesday, much to his and the team management’s relief. India are 1-2 down in the series and still have plenty of work to do in the last two fixtures.

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