The Indian skipper Virat Kohli has revealed that it is difficult for them to get in Ravichandran Ashwin in the T20I team as Washington Sundar has been doing a fine job for them.
Kohli stated both of these players are of the same discipline and it doesn’t make sense to get Ashwin back in the shortest format of the game unless things go south for Sundar.
Ashwin last played a T20 match back in July 2017 and since then he hasn’t played any limited-overs series. The veteran has been in top form in the recent past and had scalped 32 wickets in the four-match Test series against England. Furthermore, he had also scored 189 runs, and thus he was awarded the Player of the series.
Furthermore, Ashwin also had a good season for Delhi Capitals in IPL 2020. Ashwin had scalped 13 wickets in 15 matches at an average of 30.08 and had played a key role in taking his team to the final of the tournament.
Consequently, a lot of cricket boffins believe that Ashwin should be selected back in the limited-overs format. On the other hand, Washington Sundar has also done well with both bat as well as the ball. Sundar has the skills to bowl tightly in the powerplay overs and he can also deliver the goods with the bat.
Sundar had recently scored 96 runs in the fourth Test match against England. The 21-year old is still young in his International career and has played 25 T20I matches in which he has scalped 21 wickets and he has conceded his runs at an economy rate of 6.95. Thus, Sundar is expected to be backed for the T20 World Cup.
“Washington has been doing really well for us. So you cannot have two players of the same discipline playing in one spot. Unless Washy has a drastically horrible season and things go south for him… I mean the question has to be asked with some kind of logic as well… you suggest where would you add Ash and play him in the team when someone like Washington Sundar does that job. It’s easy to ask that question, but you should have a logical explanation for it yourself,” said Virat Kohli in the pre-match press conference.
The first T20I between India and England will take place at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad today.
