India will begin their Champions Trophy campaign against Bangladesh on February 20 in Dubai, which will host all of India’s matches as part of the hybrid nature of the tournament, and have five spinners in their squad. But former off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin feels that the bowling attack is a little too spin-heavy for the pitch at the Dubai International Stadium.
While Pakistan is the official host nation of the tournament making its return for the first time since 2017, India’s refusal to travel across the border to participate led to the hybrid arrangement, which was agreed to after much wrangling between the International Cricket Council, Pakistan Cricket Board and the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
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The squad led by Rohit Sharma has two specialist spinners in the form of Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav, besides spin-bowling all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar.
Sharing his opinion on that while talking on his Hindi YouTube channel ‘Ash Ki Baat’, Ashwin said five spinners is a lot in a 15-member squad.
“Five spinners in Dubai? I don’t know. I think we are one spinner too many, if not two,” he said. “The two left-arm spinners (Jadeja and Axar) are your best all-rounders alongside Hardik Pandya. So both Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja are going to play. Hardik will also play and Kuldeep will play.”
India have added mystery spinner Varun after his good show during England’s white-ball tour of India. But Ashwin said he can’t see Varun playing unless India pick an eleven that has only one specialist pacer.
“If you want Varun Chakravarthy in the team, then you will have to make a pacer sit out and use Hardik as your second pacer. Else you will have to drop a spinner to bring in a third seamer,” said Ashwin, India’s best Test off-spinner in history with 537 wickets.
India, who are in Group A alongside Bangladesh, Pakistan and New Zealand, will open their Champions Trophy campaign against Bangladesh on February 20.