Ravichandran Ashwin signs up with Nottinghamshire for six County matches

Indian Test off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who has not been in contention for the white-ball cricket for Indian team since 2017 and is not part of the squad for ICC World Cup 2019, has decided to move forward and start to prepare for national team’s inaugural World Test Championship challenge against the West Indies.

Ashwin, a veteran who featured in 65 Tests, 111 ODIs and 46 T20Is for India, is no longer in Indian team management’s plans for limited overs international cricket anymore, participated in the recently concluded Indian Premier League 2019 and captained Kings XI Punjab and performed admirably. However, he glued his sights on making himself better for the upcoming Test series in the Caribbean by signing up to play county cricket in England.

Ashwin signs up for Nottinghamshire and will play six games

“Yes, Ashwin will be playing for the Notts this season. The CoA had already made it clear that any centrally contracted cricketer will have automatic rights to play County cricket if that player gets an offer. Ashwin’s deal is almost final and only the CEO needs to sign his NoC,” a senior BCCI functionary was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.

Ashwin will be available for six Division 1 County games for Notts and this will be his second County sojourn as he previously played fours games for Worcestershire back in 2017 season and picked 20 wickets, in addition to scoring 214 runs as well. This deal makes him the third Indian player contracted to play in the English County season this year. He will be playing alongside England great fast bowler Stuart Broad

India’s Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara is already in a three-year contract with Yorkshire and Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane has signed for Hampshire recently. This has been done thanks to BCCI being in constant touch with English counties, wanting its top Test players getting county cricket experience every season in June and July.

The inaugural ICC World Test Championship will begin the Ashes 2019 in England, soon after the conclusion of the ICC World Cup 2019 and will be followed by the Indian tour to the West Indies and New Zealand hosting Sri Lanka – both in July.

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