Former Indian batter Mohammad Kaif feels if Axar Patel hadn’t been injured then Ravichandran Ashwin wouldn’t been in the World Cup scheme of things. Patel suffered a quadriceps strain in the Super Fours stage match against Bangladesh and he was then ruled out of the Asia Cup final against Sri Lanka.

The left-handed all-rounder has been included for the third ODI against Australia, subject to his fitness. BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar has confirmed that Axar Patel will be fit for the World Cup and he has not suffered any serious injury.

However, the selection panel has kept Ravichandran Ashwin as a backup option and wants to give him some game time in the three-match ODI series against Australia.

Ashwin has all the experience under his belt and he has scalped 151 wickets in 113 ODI matches at an average of 33.5 and an economy rate of 4.94 but he played his last ODI back in January 2022. Furthermore, Washington Sundar has also been included in the squad but Kaif reckons there is no comparison between him and Ashwin.

“If Axar hadn’t been injured then we wouldn’t have seen this move and Ashwin would have never been in the scene. Now Axar has suffered a strain injury and that takes time to recover from. No matter what they say that he will be back in a week’s time but such injuries take at least 2-3 weeks to recover from,” Kaif said on Star Sports.

“That is why they went for the experience in Ashwin. And remember, there is no comparison between Ashwin and Sundar. He has 900 wickets (712) across formats,” he added.

Ashwin can deliver the goods with both bat and ball but he doesn’t have enough game time in ODI cricket in the recent past, which could be an issue.

The first ODI between India and Australia will be played at Mohali on Friday and Ashwin will look to hit the ground running.