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As India face a stiff challenge against an unpredictable Afghanistan side, legendary Sunil Gavaskar has called for the inclusion of three spinners including Ravichandran Ashwin in the team composition.
Gavaskar believes "top-class" Ashwin can leave his mark against both left and right handed batters. On the back of his wicket-taking ability, Ashwin can take charge of the Indian spin unit as it would be "easy" for Afghanistan to pick mystery tweaker Varun Chakaravarthy. The Kolkata Knight Rides (KKR) bowler played as India's spinner against Pakistan and New Zealand but failed to take a single wicket in both the outings.
Despite returning to the Indian T20I side, the 35-year-old Ashwin hasn't featured barring the two warm-up matches. He went wicket-less in the first warm-up against England but picked up 2/8 against Australia in the second. Ashwin, who has over 600 international wickets under his belt, can perhaps emerge as India's saviour when the team's hopes of booking a semi-final berth are hanging by a thread at the moment.
"There is no harm in thinking of going with three spinners also. And maybe not have somebody like Shardul Thakur or Mohammed Shami. Go in with two seamers and three spinners because if Hardik can come in, you will still have three medium pacers in the team," Gavaskar told India Today.
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"A top-class spinner like R Ashwin, it doesn’t make any difference whether he is bowling to a right-hander or a left-hander," he further said.
"Having a look at the number of mystery spinners that Afghanistan themselves have, look at someone like Mujeeb and some of the others who they don’t play in the XI, they have a plethora of all these mystery spinners."
"So it might be easy for them to pick someone like a Varun Chakravarthy. So definitely, I would look at someone like R Ashwin. If at all, they are looking for someone who will slow the pace down, they can look at Rahul Chahar,” the legendary batter added.
Gavaskar also called for Rohit Sharma's promotion as the team's opener and Suryakumar Yadav's return to the playing XI in place of Ishan Kishan. Surya was ruled out of the previous contest against New Zealand due to back spasm. Even if Surya doesn't return to the starting eleven, Gavaskar wants young Ishan Kishan to bat down the order and experienced Rohit to start the innings.
“He's (Rohit) will bat at the top of the order it's simple as that. This will help Ishan Kishan if Suryakumar Yadav is not fit still. I think it will help Ishan Kishan if he is batting at five or six because that's the situation he'll find himself in," Gavaskar said.
