ICC Champions Trophy 2017: Ravichandran Ashwin might be included to trouble the Lankan lefties feels Sunil Gavaskar

Ravichandran Ashwin was dropped for India’s first game of the tournament

What’s the story?

Former Indian skipper, Sunil Gavaskar feels that India’s premier off-spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin may just be included in the playing XI for their next encounter against Sri Lanka.

“India may just make a change and bring in Ashwin to counter the left-hand batsmen in the Lankan team. India are looking primed for the big occasion and ready for anybody.” wrote the cricketing legend for TOI.

In case you didn’t know...

After what was a brilliant all-round performance against Pakistan, India has sent a strong message to all the other contenders that they are all set to defend the title.

India started off their title defence by beating Pakistan by 124 runs (DLS method) in their Champions Trophy opener. The Indians were in complete control as they won the game comprehensively. However, the one thing that didn’t quite go as expected was their fielding.

The heart of the matter

One of the greatest opening batsmen of all time, Sunil Gavaskar has come out with his views on India’s next square-off against the Lankans. He feels that the inclusion of Ashwin will help India bundle out Sri Lanka’s left-handed enriched batting order.

The near-perfectionist also opined that the return of Sri Lanka’s captain, Angelo Mathews will undoubtedly strengthen his team’s batting and bowling and eventually boost their morale.

The 67-year-old is concerned about India’s over-rate. He advised them on having an eye on maintaining the over-rate as they are using four bowlers with long run-ups and certainly wouldn’t want their skipper suspended for an important game.

He further added that the Indians are a good fielding unit and should live up to their standards, not relax or take fielding lightly before the game ends, even if they were to win hands down.

Extra cover: Rating the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 jerseys

What’s next?

India will be taking on Sri Lanka in their second ICC Champions Trophy match scheduled on June 8, 3:00 pm (IST) at the Oval.

Author’s take

The addition of Ashwin does make sense with Sri Lanka having a number of left-handed batsmen, but the question that arises is where does he fit in? India will surely play four seamers, leaving Ashwin to replace either Ravi Jadeja or Kedar Jadhav. However, considering the team’s performance in the previous game, it wouldn’t be surprising if captain Kohli goes ahead with the same playing XI.

India received a fair bit of flack for their on-field efforts displayed in the game against Pakistan. The players are very well aware of the areas where they must improve and the Indian team is a very good fielding unit and they will hope that it was just the one odd day where the players had butterfingers.