Ravichandran Ashwin bids adieu to his county stint at Worcestershire this season

With the gruelling schedule of International Cricket across three different formats of the game, it becomes very difficult for a cricketer to feature in all three formats of the game. Until and unless, one is versatile to boast the skill set which would encompass the demands of all three formats of the game and high levels of fitness, it is very difficult to sustain oneself in all forms of the game.

The likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja came from the age of T20, through the ranks of Chennai Super Kings into the Indian Cricket team. For a number of years, the spin twin was an integral part of the Indian team in coloured clothing.

However, their impressive performances started to transcend into the whites for the Indian team and the watershed moment for the duo came during the recently concluded grand home season for Test Cricket in India. In the 13 Test matches, both Ashwin and Jadeja went on to clinch 153 wickets and caused havoc in the opposition’s camp. There was a point in time when two captured the top two places in the ICC Test ranking.

However, their performances in the Tests came at the price of a dip in their performance in the limited overs format.  Both Ashwin and Jadeja failed to pick wickets during the middle overs and also went for an economy at the higher end. The Champions Trophy was a clear cut example that Indians needed a new tactic and a wrist spinning option.

As a result, post-Champions Trophy, the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav got the nod ahead of Ashwin and Jadeja. Ravichandran Ashwin was sent to complete a stint with Worcestershire in the English county circuit to nurture his bowling in Test.

Clearly, with this move, selectors have made it clear that Ashwin and Jadeja are best suited for the whites, while the wrist spinning option would be preferred over finger spinners in the limited overs format.

Recently, Ravichandran Ashwin took to Twitter to sign off from a successful stint at Worcester by stating,”Had a great time with @WorcsCCC over the last 5 weeks. So much learning and so much more to learn and apply.#cricketersdream”

Here’s the Tweet