'Never seen you in this jersey appa' - R Ashwin's daughter as he dons India's coloured jersey

Ravichandran Ashwin’s two-year-old daughter was left surprised seeing her father donning a blue Indian jersey. The off-spinner is set to return to India’s limited-overs set up after 2017 after being named as one of the five spinners in India’s 15-man T20 World Cup squad, which got underway on October 17 in Oman.

India, who are placed in Group B of Super12s, will kickstart their campaign against Pakistan on October 24. For Ashwin, the tournament is a chance to resurrect his white-ball career after falling out of favor for the format owing to the rise of various names around him. So much so, that the spinner has not gotten a chance to wear the blue jersey even once after the birth of her daughter. So, quite expectedly, she was surprised to see him in a new avatar.

On October 17, Ashwin revealed in an Instagram post his daughter’s reaction. He wrote: ”When your daughter says ‘I have never seen you in this jersey appa’ can’t leave her out of the picture. Can you? @prithinarayanan”.

 

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Meanwhile, on October 16, Indian skipper Virat Kohli explained the reason behind Ashwin’s inclusion in the side.

“That one thing that Ashwin has really improved on is bowling with a lot of courage in white-ball cricket,” Kohli said. “If you see the IPL in the last couple of years, he’s bowled difficult overs, he’s bowled against the top players in the IPL, not being shy to put the ball in the right areas where spinners can kind of get intimidated by the power-hitters in the IPL.

“But Ashwin believed in his skill sets and we’ve felt like the way he was bowling, his variations now, and the control over pace, is something which gives us a lot of experience. A guy who has played so much international cricket and now when’s at his confident best, these guys can go in there and change the game with their spells. So, hence I think Ashwin has been rewarded for reviving his white-ball skills altogether.

“He was a regular for us back in the day, then he fell off a little bit because the wrist spinners were in demand mostly in that middle period. But now the finger spinners with accuracy have come back into the game, so we also have to evolve as a team with the evolving trend. Ash and the likes of Jadeja as well, have been performing brilliantly. The way he’s gone about in the IPL as well, just being a finger-spinner and bowling with a lot of courage, just augurs well for the team. As I said, these guys can also be very consistent and know exactly what to do in what situation.