‘He’s definitely here to stay’ – Rohit Sharma lauds Ravi Ashwin for lending Team India flexibility in white-ball cricket

Team India ODI and T20I skipper Rohit Sharma reckoned that Ravi Ashwin has a bright future in the offing as far as white-ball cricket is concerned. Back in October, Ashwin made a comeback to T20I cricket in the T20 World Cup 2021 after a long gap of four years. Although the Men in Blue, then led by Virat Kohli, couldn’t go beyond the Super 12, the 35-year-old managed to grab attention.

Sharma, who recently took over from Kohli as India’s white-ball captain, lauded Ashwin for bringing in a lot of flexibility and showing quite a significant amount of versatility. The 34-year-old Sharma, who recently led India to a 3-0 series whitewash in the New Zealand T20Is, put for the importance of having multi-dimensional bowlers.

The more options you have with bowlers the better, says Rohit Sharma

“Ashwin will give you that flexibility, you can use him in the powerplay or the middle over, so having a bowler like that – an all-rounder bowler I’d like to call – who can bowl anytime and anywhere in whatever situation, is always important,” Sharma was quoted as saying while speaking to journalist Boria Majumdar on ‘Backstage with Boria’. 

“You don’t want one-dimensional bowlers where you know he can only bowl outside powerplay, he cannot bowl in the death, can only bowl to right-handers, can only bowl to left-handers. The more options you have with bowlers the better, that’s what I felt,” he stated.

“I thought he’d be a great addition, and I think he’s here to stay. He’s definitely here to stay,” the Nagpur-born Sharma added.

Ashwin recently played in the two-match Test against the Black Caps where he played a key role in India’s 1-0 victory. In two matches, he picked up 14 wickets with two four-wicket hauls to show for his efforts. In the Kanpur Test, he also got useful scores of 38 and 32.

As far as limited-overs cricket is concerned, Ashwin has picked up 211 wickets from 162 international matches. Having last played ODI cricket back in June 2017, it remains to be seen if the selectors give him a chance in the upcoming three-match series against South Africa.