As wrist-spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal running through the South African batting line-up in the ongoing ODI series against India, back home veteran tweakers R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are contemplating a life without limited-overs cricket in the careers.
However, on Friday, India bowling coach Bharat Arun clarified that the veteran spin-duo, who are placed on top of the ICC Test bowlers’ rankings, were still not entirely out of India’s plans for the 2019 ODI World Cup in England.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the fourth ODI in Johannesburg, Arun said that the decision to pick Kuldeep and Chahal for the South Africa ODI series was taken as the team management were convinced that wrist-spinners would do better than finger-spinners in South Africa.
He also added that the call to rest Ashwin and Jadeja from limited-overs cricket was taken last year as the management wanted to assess the talent pool.
“We have a pool of bowlers,” Arun said. “As you would understand the volume of cricket that we are playing, we need to keep rotating our bowlers so they are nice and fresh in every format. These two bowlers showed a lot of promise.
“And we said in overseas conditions wrist spinners would do better than what a finger spinner would. And rightly so, they have come to the party here,” Arun added.
With over one and a half years still left for the World Cup left, Arun said all was not left for Ashwin and Jadeja when it comes to limited-overs cricket.
“As I said, we wanted to look at the talent and then decide who we would want for the ultimate goal of the World Cup. So, it’s not that Ashwin and Jadeja are out of the race, they could still come back into the team,” Arun said.
Early call for Bumrah
Arun also revealed that the decision to include Jasprit Bumrah for the Test series in South Africa was taken before the Sri Lanka series in India. The former India pacer stated that Bumrah was deliberately left out of the Sri Lanka Tests so he could work on his fitness ahead of the team’s trip to South Africa.
“We had made a conscious decision that we would play Bumrah (in South Africa) when we were in India,” said Arun. “We deliberately kept him out of the Tests against Sri Lanka. He was at NCA working on fitness and strength. We knew the workload in SA would be a lot so we prepared and he turned out to be the pick of the bowlers.
Arun heaped praise on the 24-year-old bowler, adding that his fine performances in the limited-overs gave the team management enough evidence that the pacer could do well in South Africa.
“Wherever he has been given chances he has done exceptionally well,” said Arun. “In limited overs, he did well enough for us to understand that he can be a handful here (SA). So decided to prepare him to do well here.
With an eye on the World Cup, Arun says the team management in contemplating a rotational policy for pacers following the ongoing series.
“We (team management) want to rotate players to keep them nice and fresh. After this series we will assess their workload and take a call,” he said.
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